The Ends and the Means
by Tintinnabula
Summary: Written for the "Love's Not Time's Fool" Kakasaku Shakespeare competition. To shinobi, "The ends justify the means," are words to live by. But do those words apply to matters of love? Rated M for graphic sexual situations. kakashi x sakura, kakasaku
1. Section 17, Article 12

_Author's note: This story was created for the "Love's Not Time's Fool" competition hosted by the LJ Kakasaku community and _moderndayportia_. The idea of the contest is to choose one of Shakespeare's plays and retell it within the Naruto universe, with Kakashi and Sakura as the main players. I have chosen one of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, _All's Well That Ends Well_, for my submission. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, that you'll vote for it at community . livejournal . com / kakasaku / (remove spaces to make this a working link—or just Google "kakasaku shakespeare.") Voting begins on March 2. Thank you for reading, and to the wonderful _IcarusT_ for for giving up a chunk of her weekend to beta!_

_Disclaimer: Naruto, associated characters and settings belong to Masashi Kishimoto. No profit will be made nor is intended to be made from this work of fanfiction._

_  
Rated M for graphic sex. Please use discretion. This story is complete: I've posted it in four chapters to make it easier to read._

**The Ends and the Means**

_a kakasaku fanfiction_

...

**_All's well that ends well._**

--William Shakespeare

**_The ends justify the means._**

--Anonymous, often attributed

to Niccolò Machiavelli

...

_Chapter One_

**_Section 17, Article 12_**

A dusty ray of late afternoon sunlight filtered over Haruno Sakura as she carried a stack of books to a table in the main reading area of the Konoha library. She set the volumes down carefully, as all of them were ancient, leather bound, one-of-a-kind texts she'd begged from the rather stingy librarian that managed the closed stacks. Pencil and notebook in hand, the village's best medic searched the brittle pages of these treatises, looking for any clue that might help her cure the Hokage's affliction.

While she was alive, Tsunade had failed to reverse the cellular damage done to the village's young leader each time he performed the wind release rasengan. Although Naruto evolved this jutsu further to a form that no longer harmed his body, substantial damage had already been done.

The Nine Tails made up for Naruto's weakening organs and tissues at first. But even a mighty demon had its limits. At this point in time, only three years after taking on the guardianship of the village, Naruto lay in bed, permanently exhausted. He looked like an old man, his skin loose and crepey on his frame, his muscles atrophied into the abbreviated versions usually seen on the starved.

Sakura doubted she could cure her friend. Tsunade had failed, and Shishou had ten times the experience of her student. But Sakura was nothing if not tenacious. She spent most of her free time in the dusty stacks, and was close to completing her self-imposed mission of reading every medical book and herbal encyclopedia the library had to offer.

With a focused breath she blew dust from the cover of another text, sending motes into the air to circle around her in a haze of refracted light. This book was entitled: _A Survey of the Organelles: Their Physiology and Chakra Adjustment_. It looked promising. But horribly, it was hand-written, probably one of the first books written after the switch from scrolls to codex format. The medic struggled to read it in the waning afternoon light, and almost immediately set it aside to rub her eyes.

A book Sakura _hadn't_ carried to the table caught her eye. This one was a history. Typically she avoided that section of the library, as that kind of book put her to sleep. But this volume had illustrations, colored ones showing the Konoha of the past. Sakura paged through the book, pausing at a section on marriage customs.

The world had certainly changed. The picture showed a veil-covered woman, kneeling before her future husband in earnest supplication. In the background, gold was being exchanged, an allusion to the custom of dowering one's daughters.

The modern kunoichi shuddered with interested disgust. The idea of essentially selling one's offspring to the highest bidder was repugnant. But it was distasteful in the way of a massive accident— one felt compelled to look on, or in this case, to keep reading.

"Thinking of tying the knot?"

Sakura looked up to see the village womanizer smiling at her.

"That would require an offer, wouldn't it?" Sakura regretted her words immediately. The best way to deal with Genma was to blast him with an icy response, if not ice itself. He interpreted anything warmer as a come-on.

"Surely someone as beautiful as you has had dozens— no, hundreds— of offers."

The kunoichi tried not to roll her eyes at this blatant attempt at ingratiation. "I haven't had a date in two years."

"I could fix that, you know."

"No, thanks." That was direct, Sakura reasoned. Not that he was likely to take no for an answer.

"We're all afraid of your biting wit, my dear."

"Is that what it is? That's the reason men turn and run when I approach?"

Genma chuckled. "I doubt they do that."

"Well, no, not really. The problem is there aren't too many people I'm interested in dating. And the ones that I do find attractive are way out of my league."

The orally-fixated jounin gave a theatrical sigh. "I pity you. Have you ever thought of lowering your standards?"

"And why would I do that?"

"To live a little. It seems we'll be young forever, but the truth is youth is fleeting. You'll wake up one morning middle aged—"

"Like you?"

Genma's senbon fell onto the table, anointing Sakura's book with a spray of spittle. "No, I'm not there yet! But I can tell you, you'll regret the times you might have spent—"

"In hedonistic abandon?"

"Precisely." Genma gazed at her with an expression approaching a leer. "You're still a virgin, aren't you, Sakura?"

This is why she hated talking to the man. He took such liberties. Sakura blushed profusely, and despised herself for having no control over that bodily function. With her level of chakra control she should be able to limit vasodilation within a particular tissue. "What business is that of _yours_?" she rebutted in a voice that was a bit more savage than necessary.

"It's every man's business," Genma replied glibly. "Here's the thing about virginity. It's a valuable commodity at first, but its worth falls precipitously with age. A seventeen-year-old maiden is hot— precisely because she's a virgin. But a thirty-year-old... not so much. She's the wrinkled shirt from last season. The one on the clearance rack at the very back of the store, under a banner marked "last chance." She may never have been worn by a lover, but she's worn nonetheless. Never dated, but dated. Utterly undesirable."

"Leave it to a clotheshorse to reduce a woman's state of being to a clothing metaphor."

"Well, I knew you'd understand," said the outrageously dressed Genma to a girl still wearing the red and white uniform of years past.

"Are you wearing someone else's pants?" Sakura lamely attempted to redirect the conversation.

"These?" Genma yanked on their waistband to bring them up, momentarily, to hip height. "They're the latest thing."

"You look like a prison escapee."

"What can I say? I'm a slave to fashion. But let's get back to the subject at hand, Sakura."

The kunoichi sighed with patient forbearance

"Seriously," Genma continued. "You might as well lose it."

"Lose what?" Kakashi strolled up to the smirking jounin and placed a gloved, calloused hand on his shoulder.

"Nothing," said fashionista and victim simultaneously.

"You have a mission report to file. Or did you forget?"

Genma sauntered off, with a backwards wink at Sakura.

"Thanks." Sakura smiled at Kakashi.

"So he _was_ bothering you, then."

She shrugged. "He was just being Genma. It's my fault. He noticed what I was reading, and that got him started."

"He's a good guy. Unbelievable in battle. It's worth putting up with a character flaw or two."

"I was wondering what you see in him."

Kakashi picked up the heavy volume in front of her and glanced at its title._"Marriage Customs of Early Leaf._ Interesting reading?"

"Not terribly. I needed a break. I've spent the better part of the day here, looking for any clue that might help me find a cure—"

"For Naruto."

She nodded. "I feel like I'm close— terribly close. In the lab I've been able to partially reverse the cellular degradation. But it stops short."

"But that's something."

"It's not enough. It might buy him another year. Maybe."

"And reading historical anthropology takes your mind off your worries?"

"The book was just lying here, so I picked it up. And it is interesting. Did you know that in early Leaf the daimyou decided who would marry whom? This was when Leaf was sparsely populated. Once a year the citizenry would be gathered, and he'd issue an edict. Some had never met before then."

"The Konoha Breeding Project."

"You know about it?"

Kakashi nodded. "It's how the Uchiha came about. From a Hyuuga and a foreign woman with multi-pupilled eyes. Sometimes the daimyou let a favored subject choose his own wife. The man would walk among the prospective wives and choose anyone he fancied. And with that, they were married."

"How do you know so much about this? They didn't say a word about it in our Academy history classes."

Kakashi sat down next to her, and paged to the very beginning of the anthropology book. He stopped at the title page, and ran his finger down the lines of the text.

"'Hatake Souku, editor.'" Sakura read aloud.

"My grandfather. Not to mention one of the beneficiaries of the breeding project."

"He was a child of it?"

"No. It's how he met my grandmother."

"Oh, wow."

Kakashi gave his trademark indolent shrug. "Most villagers don't talk about it. It was another time, with different rules. Things have changed."

"But when was he born?" Sakura did some quick calculations. "Surely after the founding of the village."

"The First Hokage carried on the daimyou's tradition." Noticing her look of surprise, Kakashi continued, "I'm sure he thought it useful to make sure certain lineages continued. And that new ones were created."

"So you approve?"

"I didn't say that. And what I think really doesn't matter. Arranged marriages rarely happen anymore. Not in Konoha." Kakashi glanced toward the window, his substitute for a timepiece and started.

"Ah! I need to be going."

"You're late?"

"Of course." His lone eye crinkled in what she took as a sign of a smile.

"We never talk, you know." She failed to hide the wistfulness in her voice.

"Well, we should change that. It's always nice to talk with you, Sakura."

Sakura beamed at these encouraging words. "Thanks, Kakashi."

The copy ninja tipped his hand in a lazy wave and loped towards the exit.

Sakura continued perusing her book, nodding in approval as she read the next passage. The Second Hokage had ended the practice of mate selection and mass marriage, after several ill-conceived matches ended in feuding and bloodshed.

But this hadn't entirely ended the practice. Fathers carried on then, choosing the mates for their daughters. This lasted until just one generation prior to Sakura's, when males and females were finally afforded autonomy. She knew about this, at least. Her mother was quite vocal about the fact that she'd been allowed to date over her parents' objections.

But there were still some relics of this generations-old, patriarchal attitude remaining in male-female interactions.

Men and boys continued to ask out their female counterparts. It was almost never the other way around and frowned upon when it did occur. Women were supposed to use their kunoichi training to land a man. Drilled into every female ninja-in-training was a vast storehouse of accumulated information on the best way to trick a man into falling for you. If one were particularly skilled at the art (and most were), one could make a man believe his every gesture was his own idea, when truly it was nothing of the sort.

To put it mildly, this kind of deceptive behavior disgusted Sakura. Why should she wait in her apartment for a hand-written confession of another's interest? Worse, why should she be forced to engineer such an interaction when there were much more direct ways of communicating?

But she'd tried this latter method— speaking face-to-face with the object of her affection— and it had failed miserably. Her confession of love to Sasuke had earned her a bump on the head and a night on a cold, concrete bench. She'd tried the passive method, as well. No one approached her. Maybe she wasn't pretty enough, or maybe, as Genma implied, she was too intelligent. Whatever the reason, it was clear to Sakura that the direct approach was even more unlikely to work.

It seemed that when it came to matters of love, the men of Konoha preferred a covert approach from women, even from the village's most active, assertive kunoichi.

Sakura wrinkled her nose in distaste at the thought of this double standard. It was clear to her that women would never truly be equal to men until this inequity was addressed. But it was also blindingly evident that she needed to take matters into her own hands if she ever wanted a man.

And Sakura did want a man. She wanted a husband and children, an oasis of stability in an otherwise chaotic shinobi life. She wasn't after the fairy tale— after witnessing the daily misery of her parents' marriage Sakura had no illusions about the difficulties every married couple faced. But a person to come home to each night, a person with whom she could share the trials and small victories of daily life seemed a beautiful dream.

Yes, she did want a man, one _specific_ man, a man who barely noticed her on a good day. True, he'd just rescued her from the sex-infused ramblings of the village's most promiscuous ninja, but this was something he'd do for any colleague. Sakura doubted that she registered as attractive— or interesting— on Kakashi's personal meter, let alone as a female.

He wasn't a monk, as she'd assumed after first meeting him, or gay, as she'd wondered after the strange piggy back ride from Gai-sensei she'd witnessed on a return journey from Suna. Sakura knew for a fact that Kakashi dated occasionally. He wasn't a male slut, like Genma. Rather, Kakashi was known to have very high standards. Ino kept Sakura apprised of his comings and goings around the village as one small item of interest in her daily gossip broadcast. And Sakura knew of the copy ninja's visits to the Yamanaka flower shop to pick out a single— always a single—flower. Thanks to Ino, she even knew the names some of his conquests.

They were pretty women, lovely, accomplished, feminine ones. It was obvious to Sakura that Kakashi could have anyone he desired. But he didn't desire just anyone.

Certainly not someone like _her_. There wasn't a rock crusher among the copy ninja's conquests: his women were more genteel than that, more soft-spoken. They were willowy, almost ethereal creatures, dancers, not boxers. Painters, not potters. Women similar to Sakura in gender alone.

Kakashi might as well be a different species— a new form of human that mated only with his like. Not with a grounded, faltering mortal with too big forehead and too wide eyes.

She could dream, though.

A good part of Sakura's evenings were lost in fantasy, the best ones rehearsed and polished into neat internal movies of the way things would be in a perfect world.

In these waking dreams Kakashi noticed her, his eyes widening as an unseen void in his life was instantaneously filled by the person he recognized as his soul mate. He felt the electrifying jolt of this epiphany, and he always asked for Sakura's hand immediately. And Kakashi was unable to wait for a ceremony— neither of them were— so they'd make love that same night. Wild, tumultuous love. And sex was always everything Sakura had otherwise imagined it to be.

The pink-haired fantasist jumped as the ceiling lights flashed with the silent announcement that the library would be closing soon. In an uncharacteristic move, Sakura stowed two books in her bag and headed for the exit. Two ideas had announced themselves to her, flashing on just as the ornate hanging lamps above her flashed off. One revelation was a brilliant idea how she might cure Naruto, the other, an easy fix for her ailing love life.

* * *

"I don't know how I'll repay you."

Already Naruto was looking healthier. Color had come back into his skin, and his eyes had lost the dullness that had turned them from their normal brilliant turquoise to a murky sea water blue. He'd never lost his smile, but now it was backlit by a glow of returning health.

Sakura was sure she'd never been so happy about a patient's recovery. She hugged her friend gently, mindful of his still weakened physiology. Then she adjusted Naruto's hospital bed, which he'd installed in his office to be closer to his work. That was the Hokage: even bedridden he'd kept up on his paperwork, unlike his predecessor.

The workaholic sank into newly fluffed pillows and smiled at his healer. "What exactly did you do? No, don't tell me. I probably wouldn't understand."

"Actually, it's quite simple. It came to me when I was thinking about how easily I blush."

Naruto's brow wrinkled in an attempt at comprehension.

"I was thinking about the chakra circuits that connect to the capillaries of the cutaneous layer. Of skin. There was a study done not so long ago that showed they are responsive to beta-adrenergic drugs."

"Ooh. You lost me." A glaze slowly crept over the ninja's cornflower eyes.

"Well, they tested a bunch of drugs. One actually increased blushing. The reason was that more capillaries were created. Which means more chakra circuits. So all I had to do was see if it would cause any type of chakra pathway to grow. Or regrow, as in your case." Sakura beamed. "And it worked!"

"I have no idea what you just said, Sakura. I'm just thankful you're on our side. You saved my life."

"It means you won't be able to use the early form of your rasengan anymore. I don't know if the treatment will work again."

"I've learned my lesson. My skull is pretty thick, but once I've got a lesson down, it stays." Naruto sighed as he lay back among the abundance of cushions on his bed. "So, Sakura. What can I do to repay you?"

"Naruto..."

"Seriously. Your heart's desire. If it's within my ability, I'll do it."

Sakura bit her lip in uncertainty. He wasn't drug addled, but Naruto didn't know what he was saying. And surely he wouldn't approve of what she had in mind.

"I can tell there's _something_. Do you have an idea of how happy you've made me? And Hinata? And our child? Not to mention the village."

"I get it, Naruto. But it's my job to heal."

"No. You've spent countless hours at the library. Kakashi mentioned it to me."

"Kakashi...?"

"He keeps an eye on you."

This was surprising news, as she rarely crossed path with said ninja. But it gave her the courage to speak. Sakura took a deep breath and let the words come tumbling out. "Actually, there is something you can do for me."

"Name it."

"I want a husband."

"A husband? What's stopping you?"

"Face it, Naruto. I'm not the most attractive kunoichi in the village."

"What? You've got to be kidding! You're gorgeous, Sakura."

She ignored this expected response. He was still smitten, even though he'd been married for years, now. "And the men I find attractive are put off by me. Maybe it's my strength."

"Yeah. Who'd want to be crushed to death during his first lover's row?" Naruto grimaced in immediate chagrin. "Ooh. Sorry. That just slipped out."

"You sound like Sai. But you're right. Or maybe I'm too intelligent. That scares some guys."

"Not me."

"Nothing scares you, Naruto. My point is, I can sit around growing old, or I can take a chance. I want to take a chance."

"How do I fit into this?"

"Section 17, Article 12 of the Konoha charter."

"What?" Not surprisingly, the Hokage had never read the document. It didn't even sound like he was familiar with it.

"Izumo?"

The longtime aide came running in, his eyes widening as he saw the Hokage's renewed vigor.

"Can you find me— what was it, again?"

"The Konoha charter," Sakura repeated patiently.

"The Konoha charter," directed Naruto.

"It's right here, Hokage-sama." Izumo walked over to a disused bookshelf and pulled the necessary scroll from a precariously balanced stack.

The Hokage sat up in bed, unrolled the proffered scroll to the appropriate place and read aloud.

"Section 17, Article 12. When deemed necessary, the Hokage may convene a court of marriage. This court is twofold in purpose. First, it will promote the dissemination of advantageous Kekkai Genkai and other traits deemed of strategic value to the village. Second, in rare cases it will be used as a reward for superior service to the village. The court may take two forms. Form one will consist of an equal number of males and females, to be assigned to each other by the Hokage's decree. Form two will consist of an honored shinobi and potential mates, from which a single spouse will be selected.

Naruto looked at Sakura in confusion.

"It means you can set up a group of men for me to choose among."

"And you'd just choose someone from that group, huh? Not very romantic, is it? Don't you want to fall in love?" Naruto tilted his head as he gazed critically at his long-time friend. "You don't already have someone in mind, do you?"

"No! Of course not! I think it would be fair to convene all the unmarried men age twenty-one and up, don't you?"

"How come I've never heard of this before— this Section 17?"

"It hasn't been used in a long time. Since the First."

"There must have been a reason it was abandoned."

"Well, at first the village was small. It made sense to plan the most efficacious matings."

"Ugh. It's like breeding dogs."

"It was accepted at the time. And it's still on the books. You're well within your authority to convene a court of marriage."

"But...Izumo, this was written before the equal rights provision, wasn't it?"

Naruto's aide nodded at the obvious question. "But that law opened up all previous legislation. Even if the marriage court was only for men initially, it applies to both men and women now."

"Sakura, it still seems meddlesome to me."

The kunoichi bowed her head in defeat. Naruto was not going to be convinced. This idea went against his strongly held beliefs of fair play. "Never mind. I'm sorry I brought it up."

A still-weak hand reached out to grasp hers. "I didn't say I wouldn't do it. I owe you my life, Sakura. If this truly what you want, consider it done."

"Really?"

"I'll convene the court next week. During the Hanami Festival."

* * *

"Konoha, it is good to be back!"

An approving crowd roared their delight at seeing their beloved Hokage again. It had been months since he'd appeared in public, and the village's residents had feared, rightfully, for the worst. To see their leader well again was a surprise to most, and a happy ending for the most faithful.

Naruto stood atop the cylindrical administration building, Hinata to his right, and Sakura to his left. He raised his hand to quiet the crowd some 15 meters below him. It subdued itself immediately, a reflexive response to the Rokudaime's inborn authority.

"You should know," Naruto said in a crisp, loud voice, "that one person is responsible for my recovery. This person spent endless hours in the library and the lab finding a cure for my disorder. She burned the candle at both ends and risked her own health to recover mine. Please tell me what you think of Konoha's new head medic, Haruno Sakura!"

The crowd went wild in its eagerness to assign a tangible reason for their leader's recovery. Their excited cheering, combined with the stamping of many feet shook loose the cherry blossoms on the trees lining the square. Each small spring breeze showered the crowd with a confetti of delicate petals.

Sakura blushed as she heard her name chanted. This must be what it was like to have power, she mused. It was a testament to Naruto's character that he didn't let this feeling of love— of raw approval— go to his head.

Naruto bellowed over the noise of the crowd.

"She deserves a reward, don't you agree?"

There was a definitive "yes" from the crowd, a cheer so loud it rattled the admin building's windows, and set forth another petal gale.

The Hokage raised his hand again, bringing a silence that was deafening in its immediacy.

"One job of the Hokage is to ensure the well-being of the village. I think it is in the interest of this village that a woman this bright—" the crowd clapped, "this resourceful—" the crowd cheered, "this beautiful—" the crowd hooted lasciviously, "should have a husband."

A hush fell over the citizens and shinobi assembled below.

"I ask that every single man, age 21 and over, step forward now."

The crowd parted and reorganized itself with organic fluidity as the marriageable men of the village moved forward. A murmuring ensued and grew quickly in volume as speculation began.

"Choose your husband," Naruto said quietly, as he gave his best friend a gentle push towards the spiral staircase that led from the roof.

Sakura moved slowly. Surely this was a bad idea, after all.

But the crowd clapped rhythmically as she descended the stairs like some princess at her courtly debut. It grew silent again as she reached the ground, and the assemblage of men parted as she walked toward them.

Her face must be as red as the shirt she wore.

Sakura moved slowly among her prospective mates, to give the charade a bit more substance. Genma was near the front of the group and all smiles. He puffed out his chest and sucked in his gut, which caused his pants to slide down his hips. Lee was starry-eyed, and Sakura sensed that he was praying to a vestal god or three. Or maybe to a god or goddess of love. Kiba looked away as she approached. He was already taken, she knew, although not officially. She nodded in his direction before moving away. Shikamaru shook his head in a small show of disdain. The master strategist and iconoclast was not fond of trickery in love. Ino had learned this some time ago, although this hadn't stopped her from trying.

Sakura continued scanning the crowd for the object of her intent. Gai was there, as was her one-time teacher Iruka, and even the slightly scary Ibiki. But no Kakashi.

She was sure of it now. This was a very bad idea. She wouldn't be able to walk away empty handed: she'd have to choose one of the men now standing before her. The usually brilliant kunoichi froze as she tried to come up with a plan, some easy fix for the problem she'd created for herself.

Sakura gazed up at the admin building. Naruto and a very pregnant Hinata were smiling encouragingly, their arms linked in a show of solidarity.

Lee, the daunted kunoichi decided. Lee wouldn't be so bad. He still doted on her, after all.

Sakura moved back through the crowd and was about to tap the smaller green beast of Konoha, when she heard a welcome drawl. It was a lazy voice she knew quite well.

Honestly, she had never heard such a lovely sound in her life.

"Can anyone tell me why all of you men are crowded in here? Are they giving something away?"

Sakura flew towards the voice, nearly tackling its owner. "Hatake Kakashi, I choose you."

"Um, choose me for what?"

The crowd roared its approval.

* * *

"Naruto, I'll ask you again. What the hell is going on?"

Behind the fortress of his desk, the sixth Hokage peered carefully from Kakashi to Sakura, and back again. "What's going on is that you two are legally married," Konoha's leader said cautiously.

"How? When?"

"According to section 17 of the Konoha charter," Izumo broke in.

"Article 12," Kotetsu added. "It allows the Hokage to set up marriages, or offer them as rewards."

"I'm familiar with the statute," Kakashi spluttered. "And I know it hasn't been used in years— since the early days of the village. I can't believe you would go along with this, Naruto. You not only knew about this—you _okayed_ it." These last words were a statement, not a question, an angry, accusatory statement riddled with disbelief.

"I'd watch my tone, if I were you," said one of the two aides flanking the Hokage like bookends.

"I didn't know who Sakura had in mind, Kakashi."

"Where is my say in the matter? That statute was abolished for a reason."

"Not abolished," corrected Izumo from Naruto's right side.

"It's a blue law. It hasn't been applied in what? Fifty years?"

"Are you questioning the Hokage's authority?" Kotetsu moved quickly toward the copy ninja, fists rigid at his side. Izumo followed.

"No! I'm questioning his judgment!"

"Let it be." Naruto waved his hand, and the twin guard dogs backed down.

Sakura looked at the ornately tiled floor and wished its fired pattern of thorny vines would spring to ornery life and swallow her whole. She might use a jutsu to escape the humiliation she was enduring, but that would be not at all acceptable. A person didn't just disappear from an audience with the Hokage. Even if he _was_ your best friend.

This was a mistake, a horrible, misshapen lump of an idea. She'd felt it, standing in the plaza surrounded by one-fourth of Konoha's population, a stomach-curdling feeling of impending doom. In hindsight she realized that she could have waved up at Naruto and said something light and funny, even a simple, "Hey! I was just kidding!" The crowd would have laughed, and she would have been able to walk away. Destiny had wanted this. Kakashi was almost always late, but today it had been for a very good reason. Sakura simply wasn't meant to choose him.

"Hokage-sama, I ask that my request be voided. Annulled. Whatever it is you need to do to make this problem disappear."

Kakashi gazed at his new wife with unvarnished disdain. "That's a little late, don't you think?"

"What do you mean? It was a stupid idea to pick you. So let's undo it."

"I can't." Naruto winced.

"Why not?" Sakura asked blankly. "You're the Hokage."

"The delegations from Tsuchi and Ame arrived today. You know how tense things are among us. If I suddenly reverse a decision, I'll look weak. Besides—" Naruto turned to the man flanking his right, "Kotetsu, is it even possible to reverse this kind of decision?"

"My understanding is _no_, Hokage-sama. Marriage is inviolable in Fire. It's a lifetime contract."

Naruto tented his index fingers as he closed his eyes in thought. He'd only wanted to make Sakura happy. But she wasn't happy now. She looked humiliated. Defeated. And Kakashi— he looked angrier than Naruto had ever seen him. Angrier than he'd been during their first real battle as a team.

The Hokage opened his eyes, but looked at his desk as he spoke. "I suggest you two accept what's done. This isn't a bad match. It will have its benefits."

"With all due respect," Kakashi glanced to either side of him, "who are you to talk about the quality of this match? We have nothing in common. She's a chunnin. I made that rank when I was _six_."

"If that's a problem, I can raise her rank right now. It's long overdue, anyway."

"That's not the point, and you know it!" Kakashi stood rigid while an aid encircled each arm with an iron hard grip.

"Let him go, boys. He has the right to be angry. But I stand by what I said, Kakashi. I can't think of anyone more suited to you."

"It's not your job to make that decision." A savage light lit his eye as it met Sakura's. "Nor _yours_."

"You're dismissed, Kakashi."

Kakashi did not immediately leave his leader's presence. Instead he took a deep breath and attempted to calm his raging emotions. When he spoke again, his voice was as even-tempered as it usually was.

"Hokage-sama, sir. I have some vacation time coming to me. With your permission, I'd like to use it."

"Granted. Work out the details with these two."

Kotetsu and Izumo accompanied Kakashi to the outer office. Once the heavy oak door clicked shut, Naruto addressed his long-time friend.

"Had you planned to choose him from the start?" he asked softly. He certainly hadn't seen that coming. Hinata said he was dense when it came to love, but Naruto had always assumed he had half a clue when it came to Sakura.

His friend bobbed her head in a barely perceptible nod.

"Why, Sakura?"

"I've been in love with him... forever. Well, it seems like forever."

"How?"

"What do you mean, how? How did you fall in love with Hinata? It just happens, idiot."

Naruto smiled at the only person in Konoha allowed to call him names. "You never spend time together."

"I know."

"And you barely know him outside of work." Naruto knew this was true— Kakashi had spent far more time with him in training, yet even Naruto knew little about the secretive man. As Hokage he heard plenty of gossip. But as for facts, Naruto knew only what others knew about the copy ninja, that the man had a love of _Icha, Icha_ and a talent at shirking even the smallest restaurant check. Kakashi liked things that way. He was a loner, plainly put.

"But I _do_ know him. I know what kind of person he is. I feel it. He's kind and he's valorous. He's a brilliant strategist. He's the ultimate shinobi apart from you, of course."

Naruto nodded. "He is all of those things. But is that enough to cause you to fall in love with him?"

"What made you fall in love?"

Naruto closed his eyes as he remembered his courtship of the future leader of the Hyuuga clan.

"It was her kindness," he said finally.

"Plenty of people in Konoha are kind."

"I know, Sakura."

"You can't really answer my question. There's no formula for love. You just know when it happens. And it happened for me."

"How do you know it's not infatuation?"

"It's lasted too long to be that."

"What about him?"

Sakura averted her eyes. "He could learn to love me."

Naruto sighed as he considered the headstrong kunoichi before him. He didn't understand her. Sakura was beautiful, a lovely person with an amazing mind. She could have anyone she wanted. But she set her sights on an enigma, someone who wasn't known to relate well to either gender. Yes, the man dated—the loner did seem to want to put down roots. But Naruto had heard tales of those relationships crashing and burning. The copy ninja was said to have eccentric hobbies and extremely strange tastes. Apparently most women couldn't handle him once they really got to know him.

"It doesn't matter. What's done is done. You're married. Maybe he'll come around." A man that lazy might, assuming he had a sex drive. There was something to be said for waking up next to an attractive woman each morning, Naruto knew. Kakashi was a practical man. Surely he'd see the benefit of a wife. And maybe he _would_ grow to love her.

"Take the next two weeks with Kakashi, and see if you can work things out."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"And here." Naruto pulled two items from his desk drawer. "I'll miss your birthday. Go ahead and open it."

Sakura clicked open a flat velvet case to reveal a small jade pendant. It was a finely carved cherry blossom, elegant in its simplicity.

"It was Hinata's idea. She thinks you should wear more jewelry."

"Thanks. To both of you." Sakura embraced the Hokage, glad of his unwavering support.

"Take this, too."

An orange covered book strangely similar in looks to the _Icha, Icha_ series was placed in her hands.

"Is this so I can understand Kakashi better?" Sakura grimaced. She had no intention of reading pornography, even if it was her new husband's major pastime.

"No. It's something Jiraiya gave me. A different kind of story. You should read it. And take your time. It has a lot to say."

"Are you sure?"

"He would want this, I'm sure."

Sakura tucked the two gifts into her satchel and bowed deeply. "Thank you, Naruto. I'm sorry I've laid all this on your doorstep. I—"

"Don't apologize. Why don't you see if you can catch Kakashi? I have a feeling he won't be sticking around for long."

Sakura hurried out of the elegant office and barreled after Kakashi, who was just leaving the anteroom.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi."

"Good for you." The copy ninja quickened his pace as he approached the stairs.

"I didn't think—"

"No, you certainly didn't." He took the marble steps two at a time, eager to be rid of this new appendage. Sakura hurried along behind him, fighting the urge to grab him and hold him close. She wanted to look him in the eye and show him her remorse, but she didn't dare.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," she said instead.

"I know."

"You do?"

"Of course." The copy ninja stared straight ahead of him. "This wasn't about me. It was all about _you_."

"That's not true. I love you."

Kakashi laughed, and Sakura was struck by the harshness of the sound.

"What do you know about me? What are my hobbies, Sakura? How do I spend my free time?"

"Um, reading?"

"There's more to me than that."

"I love the person I know."

"And what about me, Sakura? Whom do I love?" Kakashi continued down the stairs without waiting for an answer.

The kunoichi blanched. She hadn't considered that Kakashi might be involved. According to Ino, he hadn't dated in months.

"Hell, Sakura, did you consider that I might not be interested in your sex?"

His words echoed through the stairwell, and caused an audible reaction from the secretaries listening attentively in their nearby cubicles.

"You're... gay?!!" The memory of the desert piggy-back ride sent a new shudder down Sakura's spine.

"No. But that's not the point. _You don't know me, Sakura_. A marriage doesn't start out like this." Kakashi continued down the stairs and headed to the exit. Sakura bounded after him, and grabbed his arm as he pushed through the ornate iron doors of the admin building and into a blindly sunny spring afternoon.

"Where are you going?"

"Away."

"Where?"

"You really don't need to know that."

"Without me?"

Kakashi's laugh was even harsher than before. He might have sliced her with his tanto, it hurt so much.

"Yes, without you."

"Do I at least get a kiss?"

Kakashi's stare spoke for him. His exposed eye was hard as anthracite, his brow like granite.

"I'm your _wife_." She had never spoken so meekly in her life.

"No, Sakura, you're not my wife. Maybe according to the law you are, but not in any way that really matters. I don't love you, Sakura. I could never love you. We're too different. I've been on this earth for thirty-four years and you're still just a kid. I was fighting wars while you were at your mother's breast. Even now, you're just a chunnin. We don't belong together."

"You _could_ love me. You could."

"That's exactly the point. When have I had the choice? It would be one thing if I'd somehow knocked you up. I'd do the right thing. But there's no way that would have happened. I don't sleep around with random women. And even if I did, I wouldn't be stupid enough to forget the contraception."

"Kakashi—" The tears were flowing, and before an audience. Many of the crowd gathered for the day's cherry festival were still present, although half-intoxicated by now. Her horrible interaction with Kakashi was presumably delightful Hanami entertainment.

"You're not my wife, Sakura, and you never will be."

"Never..."

The copy ninja laughed again. "When I share your bed, Sakura. When you wake up and my copy of _Icha, Icha_ is on your nightstand. Consider me your husband then."

Kakashi turned on his heel and strode away from her, into a crowd whooping and hissing, and quite eager to hear more.

"Is that a challenge?" Sakura called after him in a voice too high pitched to be her own. Humiliation oozed from every syllable.

The copy ninja looked over his shoulder dismissively. "If you like." He raised his hand in a lazy wave and disappeared into the crowd.

Sakura stood unwatching, unmoving apart from the hot tears flowing slowly down her face.

Things hadn't gone at all to plan.

...

_Author's note: This story is complete. Please click to continue reading._


	2. On the Need for Casual Sex

**The Ends and the Means**

_a kakasaku fanfiction_

_...  
_

_Chapter Two_

**_On the Need for Casual Sex_**

"Here comes the blushing bride!"

It was bad enough to be berated publicly by one's husband, however loosely that term applied. But the constant congratulations from her friends were humiliating.

Somehow Ino hadn't yet heard about the altercation on the front steps of the administration building. Presumably the Hanami revelers had lost that memory in the haze of intoxication. Sakura was thankful for the small favor. She didn't want to explain the particulars of her situation to any of her well-wishers, let alone Konoha's gossip-in-chief. She nodded instead, a frozen smile upon her face and accepted the felicitations graciously.

Maybe Kakashi would come back from his vacation a changed man, ready to accept the fate bestowed upon him.

Maybe monkeys would fly, too.

But Ino got the truth out of her friend. She always did.

"I wish you would have told me." The blonde patted her friend's arm sympathetically.

"Why? How could you have helped?"

"I would have advised against it. There are better ways to land a man."

"You make it sound like sport fishing."

"It is. It's all about the bait and reeling them in."

"By trickery, I assume."

"You're a kunoichi. Stop acting so naïve. We're all about trickery— all shinobi are. But in our case, it's our greatest weapon. It's every woman's weapon," she amended, "just far more honed in our hands."

Sakura sighed. She was tired of this speech. She'd heard variations of it since her first kunoichi class at the Academy.

"You're still playing that game? Even after that huge fight with Shikamaru? After he broke things off?"

"Oh, Shika doesn't really mind. He protests to flatter his own ego. He'll be mine again, soon enough."

Sakura shook her head at her friend's obstinacy. "So I should have used my feminine wiles to catch Kakashi?"

"Something like that."

"I really don't think that would have worked any better. It's just as unfair as what I did."

"That's where you're wrong. You completely sprung this on him."

"And tricking him using your methods would be different?"

Ino nodded emphatically. "Because men _know_. They know that it's our job to lure them in. They act like it's not happening, but they know. They just pretend that they're the ones in charge, that they're pursuing us."

"So this is about losing face."

"Yup." The blonde smiled smugly.

"So what should I have done? Should I have dressed like a whore from one of his books and showed up at his door?"

Ino took the question seriously. "Hmm. That might have worked. But dressing in something classy but sexy would have been better. Men aren't always interested in seeing their escapist fantasies brought to life."

"So I should have dressed to the nines and then what? Staked out every bar where's he's been known to grab a pint? I'm sorry, but that sounds like a hooker."

Ino shook her head at this display of stubborn incomprehension. For such a smart woman, Sakura was frustratingly dense at times. That she'd gone ahead with such a hare-brained plan was ample evidence of this.

"There are other ways. You could have worked it out so that Kakashi was your patient for his annual physical."

"And what, come on to him? Given him a full oral exam? Oh, or maybe I could tripped and fallen in his path. Or invited him over for dinner and chocolate fondue? And sex, of course. That would have worked, right?" Sakura rolled her eyes in disdain. "Kakashi's so much smarter than that. He's the smartest man I've ever met."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "Even smarter than my Shika?"

_Her_ Shika. They weren't even dating anymore. Yet Ino had no problem doling out advice.

"You have no idea. His mind is on a different plane. He's amazing."

"Okay, you win. From that last comment it's obvious you're in love. Drowning in it."

"It's just not _me_ to resort to this kind of subterfuge."

Ino shrugged. "Well, good luck doing it your way."

"Why the sarcasm?"

"Do you really think sitting tight here in Konoha is going to work? That Kakashi will suddenly change his mind? He doesn't know you, Sakura. How can he fall in love with you?"

"I need to go after him."

"Well, duh." Ino softened her tone. "You need to convince him. He'd be lucky to have a girl like you. How old is he? Forty? Fifty?"

"I'm not sure." Sakura thought for a minute. "Thirty-four. He said he was thirty-four."

"Almost middle-aged. A guy his age would give his right leg for someone like you. You're gorgeous, Sakura. Inside and out. You just need to find a way for Kakashi to see this."

"You think so?" Sakura blinked back tears. This was the first time she'd allowed herself to cry since her humiliation two days before. She embraced her friend, forced a smile and made a pronouncement.

"Looks like I'm going on my honeymoon, after all."

* * *

Kakashi leaned his head back to catch the misty outer spray of the fountain behind him. His head hurt, even late in the day, which indicated that the week was going very well. Genma, who'd graciously volunteered to accompany him, was the perfect companion for a bachelor's vacation. He was Kakashi's guide to the pale, hidden underbelly of Suna society. A village that so controlled its people's clothes, their diet, and even their entertainment needed outlets like the seedy underground clubs and taverns of its floating world. While these places operated outside of the law, they were largely overlooked by the village's government. Such clubs provided a release valve for the populace, particularly for the segment of society that defended it from the outside world. And given that patrons of these nightclubs were superior in skill and strength to Suna's small police force, shutting down these places was a battle best left unfought.

Kakashi had been to quite a few of these private clubs on his previous visits to Suna. But he tended to visit the more reputable places, the ones where women kept their clothes on, for the most part. As he'd mentioned to Sakura, he wasn't interested in random sex. When he was with a woman, he wanted it to be real. He might dress her up in costumes to reenact the most tantalizing scenes from his beloved _Icha, Icha,_ but only well after he knew her.

But this week was different, according to Genma, who proceeded to acquaint Kakashi with the most debauched locations Suna had to offer. These weren't burlesque houses where beauties clad in the traditional attire of the Wind country slowly removed veil after veil, but remained half-clothed at the conclusion of their act. No, at Genma's clubs the girls used a stripper pole, started off half-naked and ended up wearing nothing but the attire they were born in. And their lap dances, according to Genma were best of the five great nations. He'd urged his friend all week to purchase one, or better still the "lingerie modeling" and full body "massage" euphemistically offered in some clubs' back room.

Characteristically, Kakashi had resisted. He wanted to drown his sorrows, not contract a disease. He didn't mind watching, though, as Mirai, and Maiko, Marumi and Megumi pleasured his friend in ways Kakashi had never seen before. Not in real life, anyway. But Genma took it too far, as he always did. Before he left each nightclub, he propositioned his paid companion for the evening. Each demurred, as was appropriate given the dancer-client relationship, but Genma was insistent. He succeeded in each case— a tribute to his talents, given these dancers' jaded outlooks—but pointlessly. By the time he and Kakashi reached the next stop in their nightly club crawl, Genma had forgotten about the previous dancer and his hard won date.

"I'm telling you, it's what you need." This argument had been going on all week. But in the lingering heat of the early evening, accompanied by the earnest tattoo of the previous night's headache, Genma's words were more annoying than usual.

"What is it that I need? Gonorrhea?"

Genma rolled his eyes.

"Syphillis?"

Another eye roll, accompanied by a shake of the head.

"What then? Hepatitis?"

"Pleasure. Pure carnal pleasure, with no strings attached. Hot, straight sex with no boundaries and no control. Drinking isn't enough— you've already realized this. Just go for it already. You know you want to."

The copy ninja did not acquiesce, however. No matter how titillating Genma made it seem, he was not about to purchase sex from some common hooker. If he wanted to be aroused he could either keep watching, or he could pick up his copy of _Icha, Icha._ The risks of doing otherwise were just too great. It wasn't that he was undersexed. Not at all. Kakashi dated enough, and had slept with enough women to understand how he was wired. But unlike many, he didn't find random encounters to be satisfying. They lacked honor, to put it in shinobi terms. He simply didn't see the allure of "hooking up," of using a woman as a receptacle, even if she were simultaneously using him.

He wanted his woman to be of his caliber. A fighter and strategist, someone who thought quickly on her feet. And wrapped up in a beautiful package of course. In other words, he was looking for a jounin.

As he was unlikely to meet such a woman on a two week vacation (given that he hadn't met her yet in his thirty-odd years), Kakashi had spent the better part of the week enjoying the hidden treasures of Suna in the way he knew best: vicariously.

This wasn't enough for Genma. He viewed his unpaid vacation as a mission, and his goal was to make his friend smile. Not that you could really tell when the copy ninja was smiling. But at least Genma would stop the man from staring morosely into space, as he'd done for most of the journey to this fair city.

"I've always said marriage is a horrible proposition."

"This can hardly be called marriage." Kakashi was not averse to the idea of a real union, in theory. One where both partners had a say. Where both partners were in love. But this "marriage" was far from that.

"You didn't know she had feelings for you?"

Kakashi's eyes widened with incredulity. "You're kidding, right?" Sakura's confession had come as a complete surprise to him. She didn't know him. No one did. So how could she love him? The idea was ludicrous.

"Why would I be kidding?"

"I didn't know. She's obsessed. It's happened before."

"You mean Sasuke? When she was twelve? That was puppy love."

"Age has nothing to do with it. She has that kind of personality. She's like a bull dog. Once she digs in there's no letting go."

"You're comparing her to your ninken. Nice."

Kakashi shrugged. "I call it as I see it. I know my dogs. Hence the simile."

"Have you even looked at her? She's hot. Smoking. Those legs, that ass. Those amazing tits."

"Don't talk about her like that."

"Why not? You just said you're not married."

"She was my student— you get that, don't you?"

"What I get is that you have a divine opportunity for student-teacher sex and you're not even considering it. Can you imagine the role playing you could do? Get her a sexy school uniform and discipline her? Shit, I'd hit that."

"Would you shut up?" His friend was hitting too close to home. Unwittingly, of course, but still. Genma's scenario _had_ crossed Kakashi's mind a time or two, starting around the time Sakura turned seventeen. One day, it seemed, she'd amazingly transformed into a voluptuous woman. When had her breasts gotten so… huge? And her ass, so deliciously curvy? His former student still wore the red and white uniform she'd always worn, although now it was a little tight in just the right places.

But Kakashi had pushed the nascent fantasy of student-teacher sex out of his mind, in favor of cleaner, more wholesome fantasies of older, more worldly women. Thinking of Sakura in a sexual way just wasn't right. Kakashi was her teacher, her protector. To keep things this way, he limited his interaction with her to a brief "hello" every now and then. He still checked up on her, of course. But he kept his distance.

"Over and over and over... With a leather crop to the derriere, and a—"

Kakashi's fist met Genma's jaw just forcefully enough to give him a much-needed warning.

Genma laughed despite the pain of a misaligned mandible, and continued to tease his friend. "What's wrong? Don't want me speaking ill of your wife?"

"Don't talk about her like that." Kakashi pointed to the stage permanently erected in the southern portion of the piazza. "Do it again, and you'll end up there." A wooden pillory dominated the stage, a working reminder of Suna's quite public justice system.

Genma ignored the warning. "Seriously, if you don't want her, can I have her? No one would need to know. It can be a quiet, on the side kind of thing."

"I said, _shut up_."

"So you do want her?"

"No, Genma. I don't want her."

"But you'll admit she's sexy, right?"

"_Shut up_." There was no question that Genma's words were true. Kakashi was a man. Men noticed these things. So of course he'd noticed Sakura, although he'd never allowed himself to even consider acting on the raw attraction he'd felt. He couldn't be blamed for looking. Who wouldn't stare at the incredibly hot, sensual kunoichi that was Haruno Sakura? She had everything Genma mentioned— a smoking body, well-muscled while remaining enchantingly feminine, gorgeous breasts that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and a firm, curvaceous ass that promised things inappropriate to consider about a former student.

But all of this was completely besides the point. A gorgeous body did not a wife make. That was where love came in. And companionship. And trust, something completely obliterated by her little stunt the previous week.

"So you'll let me—"

"No!" Kakashi slugged the fashionably dressed jounin sitting next to him, knocking him into the shallow fountain basin to be spat upon by a trio of blue tinged dolphins. Kakashi snorted derisively. As if he'd even consider letting Genma and Sakura cuckold him on top of everything else. It was bad enough to be assigned a wife before the whole village. But should word get out that Sakura was sleeping with someone else— that Kakashi had failed to please her, in other words— he'd never be able to hold his head high.

The answer to his problem was simple. He'd take every mission offered, and spend as little time in Konoha as possible. A man at war was automatically considered valorous, his wife virtuous. And if Sakura did stray, which he strongly doubted given the woman's obsessive devotion, she'd do so discretely. The key was to make sure blowhard idiots like Genma steered clear of her. But the threat of S-ranked violence should accomplish that goal. Kakashi would lay down the law once he returned to the village, and pick up a mission or three. Enough to keep him away for a good six months, at least.

Kakashi was angry, much more so than he'd previously realized. Angry at Sakura for her selfishness, and at Naruto for his foolishness. But there was nothing he could do to make the problem go away. And as Genma had pointed out, drinking wasn't helping him forget as much as he'd hoped.

"So. Tell me," he asked as he pulled the senbon user from the fountain in a show of forbearance. "What are the plans for this evening? And what is going on with your pants, anyway? Seriously, they look like a toddler took a dump in them."

Genma ignored the insult. The women, he knew, loved this style of dress. It was all the rage up north: down here he was just a bit ahead of the curve. "Well, considering that you don't want to pay for sex, and you're not interested in your wife—although interestingly, you don't want anyone else to be, either— where does that leave us?"

"I don't know, Genma. Where does it leave us?"

Genma removed the hitae-ate he wore bandanna-style to cover an only slightly thinning scalp. He scratched his head as he thought through a mental black book of sexual destinations. Then he grinned. "There's this little place I know. Before you object, it's your kind of place. Discreet. Classy. Legal. Almost. You don't want a whore— you want to aim higher."

"That's about right."

"I can't say I agree with you. All cats are grey in the dark, after all. It is a pussycat you're after, right?" The senbon user ducked to miss Kakashi's incoming fist.

The two walked back to their rooms, and for the first time in days, Kakashi smiled. He deserved a night of living dangerously, of the wanton no-rules sex Genma proselytized.

* * *

"There they are."

Genma's voice was hard to hear in the cushioned opulence of the booth they'd chosen. That this place was of a caliber they hadn't previously seen on this visit was immediately evident: the women were clothed, for one thing. Well-clothed, and tastefully made up. The Moulin Blanc was a far cry from the seedy nightclubs Kakashi and Genma had frequented all week.

"Where? Who?" There were dozens of beautiful women in the place: Genma might have been referring to any of them.

Kakashi's partner lifted his chin in the direction of a table in the corner where two women were just sitting down.

"You've got to be kidding."

"I never kid. Well, almost never. You said you wanted someone classier. I doubt there's anyone more classy in Suna."

"This is a big mistake." Kakashi allowed himself to imagine the feel of suffocation via sand coffin, his likely cause of death should Gaara find out.

"How? You're looking for a good time, and from what I've heard, she's ripe for the picking."

"Temari of the Sand is a _melon_?"

Genma licked his lips. "Yeah. Look at them. Bet she's sweet and juicy."

"So, I'm just supposed to come on to her and hope she's up for an evening of casual sex? The Kazekage's sister? Somehow, I doubt it."

"No, not casual sex. You'll need to set it up as a relationship."

"Sorry, but I don't work that way. I'm not going to lie."

"Shinobi aphorism number eighteen, man."

"_'The_ _ends justify the means_.'"

"Exactly. Just look at that end, and tell me ancient wisdom is wrong."

"The statement refers to battle, Genma."

"You think sex isn't war? It's all about coming out on top."

"I disagree."

"Yes, and that's exactly your problem. You want to escape, don't you? She's got the key to your cell. And from what I've heard it's a master key."

"I don't get your meaning."

"She'll unlock doors you didn't know existed. _Saikou no jutsu_, man."

Kakashi was completely lost. Despite the thousands of jutsu he'd encountered (and memorized) over the years, he'd never heard of a justu called "_saikou_."

"You just implied she was a virgin."

"She is. One with a family technique."

"I see."

Genma called over a waiter and sent two cocktails to Temari and her dark-haired companion. The senbon user arrived at their table just as the drinks did.

Kakashi followed. If he was going to trust the man, he shouldn't hesitate. Genma had proven himself in battle countless times, and it was evident that he knew more, much more than Kakashi about the rules of casual sex.

He arrived just in time to see a crease mar Temari's brow, followed by a look of perplexed amusement.

It was obvious she thought the two of them were too old. The wind user turned to the beauty next to her, a woman attired less conservatively than the sister to the kage, and whispered something in her ear.

Genma sat down without invitation. Naturally, he turned the seat backward before sitting, in an ostentatious show of my-crotch-can't-handle-sitting-normally-in-a-chair.

"Got room for a couple of weary jounin?" It was a standard pick up line, apprising the listener of the fact that indeed here was a real life ninja, and a high ranked one at that, and also of the fact that he wouldn't be around long.

Temari was not impressed, although her companion seemed interested. Gaara's sister went back to sipping her own drink. She pushed the gifted drink away and her companion did the same.

Genma recast this obvious rejection as a silent invitation. He picked up a lonely cocktail and slurped it greedily, as though he were lapping up the women's body fluids.

"Truth is," he said once the drink was gone, "I'm on a mission of mercy. Aiding the love-lorn."

"You two don't look like the type to be love-lorn," the brunette said saucily. "By the way, I'm Makie."

"Maybe he was referring to us," Temari said dryly.

Genma chuckled. "To be honest, it's not me. It's my friend, here."

Temari regarded the copy ninja as he took the remaining open seat.

"You don't look like the type to love, period."

Genma laughed again. "He was kind of pushed into it."

Kakashi glared at his friend. He didn't like the idea of using the recent fiasco of his wedding as a pick-up line. "Hokage's decree," he muttered, hoping to put an end to the conversation.

"And you're not happy about this, are you?" The brunette smiled coyly at the copy ninja, her eyes as meltingly brown as chocolate, causing Genma to redirect the conversation to himself.

"The Hokage decreed that I should enjoy myself as much as possible over the next week," Kakashi's friend said with a wink and a winning smile.

"Did he?" Temari responded acidly.

"Brunette's mine," Genma whispered to Kakashi.

The two were a perfect fit, as it turned out. Makie was a giggler and a lightweight, and was sitting in the senbon sucker's lap before she'd finished her third drink.

Temari was not what Kakashi expected. He'd always assumed she was a hardass. But it wasn't quite legal for her to be in a place like this—one that served alcohol—even if it was the nicest nightclub in town. That she was willing to ignore one of the village's morality laws suggested she might not be as rigid as she usually seemed.

Kakashi wondered if she might be the type to go for a meaningless fling. He couldn't say he particularly liked her personality: she was far too acerbic for his tastes, and she did seem a bit overly focused on jutsu. But she was a jounin, and therefore met his first criteria with flying colors.

The fact that she was physically almost perfect caused her to meet the second. Temari had the long legs Kakashi preferred and curves that would not allow her to be mistaken for anything but the top ranked kunoichi she was. He could almost imagine her clad only in panties and a bra, plain white ones that matched her plain humor. But that didn't matter, as these garments wouldn't stay on for long. And surely they wouldn't be talking much, either.

Kakashi wasn't good at small talk. It was one of things that sent his dates running, he knew. People didn't want to hear about the _Icha, Icha_ series. Neither the plot itself nor the storehouse of trivia he'd accumulated over the years about his favorite novels were of interest to others. And the time he'd shared a few of the illustrations with a particularly stunning date—well, that had earned him a drink in the face and a kick that just missed the most important parts of his anatomy.

The copy ninja struggled to find something to talk about until he listened in on his friend's conversation. It was all about _her_, Kakashi realized.

"So you're a kunoichi? I never would have guessed it. You're far too…how can I put this politely? Well, I guess I can't. _Sexy_. You're way more sexy than any shinobi I've ever met."

Makie pouted in a not-so-subtle display of flirtation. "Really? My sisters always called me the ugly duckling."

"You have sisters? They can't be as beautiful as you."

"Four. Mirai, Maiko, Marumi and Megumi."

Kakashi nearly snorted his drink. No wonder the girl looked so familiar. He turned back to Temari as Genma attempted to cover up the fact that he'd lap danced with all four of Makie's sisters. And stood each of them up the evening after.

"So what do you do to keep busy when you're not on a mission?" This was the best Kakashi could do on such short notice.

"I'm an Academy teacher. And I work on my jutsu, just like anyone else." Temari's disdain for him was poorly hidden, but Kakashi decided to consider it part of the challenge.

"You're a wind nature."

Temari gazed at Kakashi as though he were mentally challenged. The copy ninja shrugged inwardly. He couldn't help it that he sucked at small talk. And he didn't need her to validate his intelligence.

"Yes," the Kazekage's sister replied slowly. "Wind nature. Just like my brother, although he has Earth, too. Lucky."

"Any new moves?"

"None that I can talk about." She idly stirred her drink as she glanced across the room, no doubt in search of someone—anyone—who might rescue her from this pointless conversation.

"Tell him about _saikou no jutsu_," intervened Genma, from across the table.

Kakashi had never seen the third in line to the kage's seat blush before. Temari was as red as a July tomato, from scalp to chest. Genma was right, now that Kakashi took a better look at her. She did have a nice pair.

"It's not really something I talk about." This was another first. He'd never spent much time around Temari before, but every moment he had she'd been brash. Now she was shy, and much more approachable.

"I'm a good listener," Kakashi proffered now.

"It's a family jutsu. Passed down on the women's side for generations."

"Oh?" Kakashi pulled out his book to feign disinterest. "It's classified, I take it. I've got a lot like that."

"No, I doubt you have any like _this_. It's a kunoichi jutsu. A sexual one."

Kakashi was glad of the shock of unruly hair that hid his raised eyebrows. Who knew Genma was an accurate a vendor of gossip as the Yamanaka family?

"Let's talk about something else," he replied with false sincerity. "I'm sure this jutsu's not something you want to talk about." Kakashi paged through his book, careful to skip past the rather graphic color plates.

He heard the smile in her voice. "You wouldn't believe how men act when they find out about it. They act like _him_. You're not bald under that hitae-ate, are you?" she flung across the table.

Genma blinked indignantly before removing the cloth. "See for yourself," he muttered before tying the forehead protector around his new flame's neck.

Kakashi continued reading through all of this. Eventually, Temari returned her attention to him.

"Men like that one are the problem. No tact. No sense of decorum. They make assumptions about kunoichi. About me."

"Hmm?" The copy ninja looked up from his book to do his best impression of an absent minded librarian.

"I've never even been with a man. And still they presume that I'm some kind of tiger in bed."

"You seem more like a house cat, frankly." Not that this was a bad thing. Even small cats were ravenous lovers.

Temari wrinkled her brow, unsure whether to take Kakashi's remark as an insult or a compliment. "You know, I'll be married off as part of some treaty negotiation."

Kakashi looked up from his book, his eyes widening slightly as his brain churned along at 200 kilometers an hour. She'd just handed him the weapon he needed to penetrate her front line.

"Really? You don't have a say in it?"

Temari sighed. "Of course I do. But I love my village as much as my brothers. I'd do whatever it takes, just like they would. And our village has a history of such marriages among the Kazekage's family. At this point it's expected."

"Ah." Kakashi beckoned to the waiter for another two drinks. He put his orange-clad copy of _Icha_, _Icha_ away, and gazed at Temari with what he hoped was an earnest, understanding look.

"But you feel trapped anyway, don't you?"

Temari ignored the question, focusing instead on the sugary martini before her. She speared its cherry with the katana-like toothpick she'd previously set aside and popped into her painted mouth.

"I love these, don't you?"

"Cherries? Yes, they're delightful." Kakashi watched, transfixed, as the kunoichi chewed for a while, then pulled from her mouth a stem knotted tightly—twice.

"A useless skill, right? But good for small talk."

Kakashi strongly disagreed, but not aloud. He smiled behind his mask as he considered the great sex that awaited him. A woman with a tongue that flexible should be capable of great things.

He placed his hand on Temari's. "You don't feel trapped? You're eager to do your duty for your village with a man you've never met? I don't understand. You seem so ready to give your life away."

She looked away again, and for a long minute Kakashi wondered if he had crossed an unseen line. His target seemed on the verge of retreat.

"It would be nice to live a little before then. But it's not something someone in my position can do."

"Gossip." Kakashi nodded wisely.

"Everyone here is related, if not by blood then by friendship or work. News spreads like wildfire."

"There's no discretion."

"Exactly. I mean, I would like to be involved with someone. But even if I tried I doubt there'd be any takers. Just about every man in the village is afraid of me."

"So many men are put off by strong women. But not all of them."

"No?"

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. From the way she reacted, he might have told her she was the most beautiful woman on earth. But any women would have recognized _that_ as an obvious pick up line. His words were a bit more subtle, and tailored to her insecurities. Kakashi felt a small twinge of pride. Picking up women wasn't as hard as he imagined. Or maybe he just had a natural talent for it.

"Strength meeting strength is quite sensual," he added.

Temari blushed for the second time that evening, and Kakashi realized he'd won. She was his. All he had to do next was ask.

The copy ninja looked at his friend across the table, who had already slinked his hand under his acquaintance's shirt. Genma had always made seduction seem so easy that Kakashi assumed he was a virtuoso, master of an almost impossible art.

But really this had been quite simple. And this means would surely lead to a delightful end.

Kakashi stretched and yawned. If he'd learned one thing in observing Genma over the years, it was the art of the soft sell. "Leave them hanging" should be inscribed on the senbon user's headstone when that day came. Kakashi had witnessed many times how the simple act of walking away sent Genma's targets scurrying after him.

"It's been a long day. I think I'll turn in."

Temari frowned, as he knew she would. "I rarely have the chance to talk so honestly. Thank you."

"Would you like to do this again?" Kakashi moved in for the kill.

Temari smiled, an expression that greatly improved her looks. "Tomorrow? Same place, eight o'clock?"

Kakashi nodded and waved goodbye to the kunoichi and the pair sucking face next to her.

Genma was right. A little casual sex would make him feel much, much better.

* * *

Sakura had never journeyed to Suna alone before, but she hadn't felt comfortable traveling with a group specially selected to accompany her. Not when she wasn't traveling on business. She was as adept as ever at convincing Naruto, and finally he'd agreed to let her travel alone. The medic was grateful. She needed the time to get her head together.

Luckily, she knew the route to Wind by heart. The mountain pass through the River Country was the most difficult, as even in late spring it was snow-covered. She might have taken the easier crossing at Border Town, but this way offered a huge benefit— solitude. Sakura made her way up the mountains and through the icy cleft without incident or broken limb, just a slight tan due to days of traveling in snow-reflected light.

It wasn't until halfway down the snow-free side of the mountain that she encountered trouble, a adolescent tiger woken up from its afternoon nap by the sound of a small rock slide. The fact that the Earth user was half-wedged under the landslide was not a help. Sakura crushed the rocks around her desperately in an attempt to free herself. She didn't have much luck, however. A smaller slide crashed around her just as she'd cleared the first. This one pinned her leg under a layer of smaller debris.

Sakura cursed under her breath as the cat came closer, and wondered if a thrown rock would be fast enough to hit the cat mid-attack. She didn't get the chance to find out: the cat sprang without warning, and Sakura tore her shirt and overskirt in a frenzied, last ditch effort to get out of the feline's way. It didn't work, despite a valiant effort to power her way out by launching chakra through her leg. Sakura felt the heat of feline breath on her neck and the bloody smell of fresh killed meat. She froze on the spot. Her best chance was to play dead. She knew she'd be unable to repair a severed carotid artery before she bled out.

But the young tiger wasn't hungry. Having consumed a meal earlier in the day, it wanted to play. This might have been amusing if the feline weren't three times the kunoichi's weight. It struck at Sakura's unusually colored hair like a pet jumping at a ball of yarn. The kunoichi hissed in pain as a fairly large clump of her hair came away. The tiger made a strange snorting noise as it regarded the previous owner of its pretty new plaything, and Sakura willed herself to stay absolutely still.

Then the gorgeous feline bounded away, shiny pink plaything in its mouth, as it heard its mother's call.

Sakura sighed in heart-pounding relief. She pulled her leg from the rubble and quickly healed the damage. She needed to learn some new defensive techniques: this much was obvious.

The rest of her journey down the mountain was hurried. She had no desire to meet up with the mother tigress, as unlike her child she might be ravenous.

Sakura only paused when she reached an unobstructed view of the wild lands below her and the city that stood at the edge of the vast desert. Wind was so different from her home country, so barren, so unloved. The mountain range she was leaving was the cause of it. Most of the water was released from the clouds as they climbed the River mountains, leaving the leeward side parched and desolate. There was nothing but desert and scrub from here to Suna.

The bleakness of the landscape suited Sakura's mood. Her intent in coming to Suna was, as Ino suggested, to show Kakashi who she really was. She wasn't sure if he would immediately forgive her the transgression of claiming him as she did. She realized fully that it had been wrong to think turnabout was fair play. Just because section 17 had been deployed occasionally in the past— and always to a man's benefit— did not give her just cause to turn the tables.

She hadn't considered Kakashi's feelings. He was right. She'd acted completely selfishly.

But she was a better person than he knew. She had qualities he didn't realize, qualities that would complement his perfectly. And ultimately, Kakashi was a rule follower, not an iconoclast. He'd settle into their marriage.

First, she'd apologize, she decided as she set out over the uneven, sandy terrain that the covered 200 square kilometers between the border and Suna. She'd take him to dinner, someplace quiet where they could talk. Or maybe she'd just show up at his hotel room. He'd probably appreciate the additional privacy. But she wouldn't pull any of the tricks Ino had suggested. Yes, she'd clean off the grime accumulated over the journey through this country, and she might put up her hair. She'd even wear heels. But she'd make him a full partner this time, not a victim or stooge.

Sakura arrived in Suna covered in the brown grit of the desert, several stones lodged in her boots, and a hint of a burn covering her recently acquired tan. She'd changed into her remaining uniform shirt and skirt when she reached the bottom of the mountain, a necessary move considering that her other clothes were in shreds. But even fully clothed she felt underdressed here in a city where most men and women were fully covered. It didn't help that this shirt was a bit too small. Like the other, this shirt had been let out several times in strategic areas. But it fit quite closely across the bust, leaving little to the imagination. And its zipper refused to close across the bulk of her cleavage.

She had no place to stay, either, but this didn't worry here. There was plenty of cheap lodgings, of the type normally used by shinobi on the far end of town. Sakura trudged through the streets slowly, sipping the last of the water from her canteen, then resting for a while at a public fountain. She remembered this square from her previous visits because of the statue spouting water.

How funny that it was designed in the shape of a dolphin. Sakura doubted most residents of Sand had ever seen a marine mammal not already carved up and served as sashimi. But the statue did imply that refreshment was to be found at its base. Sakura filled her canteen, and leaned back into fountains cooling spray.

It was hot already. But days were always warm in this country, just as nights were cool and windy.

Despite the early hour the markets were in full swing. The sound of merchants praising their own wares filled the street, and the smells of grilled lamb and other exotic foods made her stomach rumble. Sakura felt a sudden urge to investigate, and quickly acquired a skewer of highly seasoned meat, which she devoured in seconds flat.

The seller offered her more, on the house. Doubtless he was intrigued by her costume. Suna and Konoha had been allies for years, but visits of rank and file shinobi to either country were rare. Apart from that, Sakura was dressed quite differently than the typical resident. She lacked the long robes so useful in such a harsh climate, and her unusual hair color marked her as an outsider.

The man was quite forward with her, which Sakura found unsettling. She was ready when the man lunged at her, pulling her kunai from the pouch on her thigh in a smooth, seamless movement. In another, the knife was at his neck and his hands secured painfully at the small of his back.

"That's enough. This is no way to treat a guest."

The man broke into a sweat at these authoritative words, and Sakura turned slightly to see the Kazekage's sister standing nearby with her hands on her hips.

"Temari!"

"Sakura, it's good to see you after so long. Although the circumstances might be better. Please excuse the inexcusable this once." Then she eyed the vendor icily. "Do it again, and you'll end up over there."

Temari twisted the vendor's head in the direction of the pillory visible on the elevated platform not far from them before releasing him. She then turned to give her acquaintance a proper greeting. Not a hug, given that Sakura was covered in grime, but a pat on the arm befitting their relationship. Temari was gruff, even hard to approach, but she didn't forget past favors. Sakura's treatment of her poisoned brother was a debt Temari would never be able to repay. She'd said as much on several occasions. It was therefore not surprising that she immediately offered the Sakura the hospitality of her brother's mansion.

Sakura noticed that eyes were still upon her as they moved through the crowd, but in a way she'd never experienced before. The men and women of the marketplace averted their eyes as the Kazekage's sister passed, but brazenly fixed on Sakura once Temari passed.

The younger kunoichi caught up with her elder to point out this phenomenon.

"It's your dress. And the fact that you're gaijin. Foreign."

"But you're dressed not that differently from me."

"I'm Gaara's sister. That counts for a lot. People here have certain misconceptions about kunoichi. Hard to believe, considering this is a hidden village, but there you have it."

"Like what? What are these misconceptions?"

"That we're prostitutes."

"Oh."

"The Wind country is a lot more conservative than your land. Especially about sex. It wasn't until thirty years ago that kunoichi were even recruited to become shinobi. People here still consider the idea as foreign. And the tales they've heard about the most famous kunoichi haven't helped much."

"But you're one of the strongest ninja in Suna. Don't they see that?"

Temari shrugged. "Who knows? They're not going to attack me for fear of repercussions. But most of the other kunoichi— and really, there aren't that many of us— tend to dress more plainly than you might expect."

"So I stood out like a traffic light."

The pig-tailed blonde grinned for the first time that morning. "Pretty much."

The two crossed a cobblestone courtyard and passed through the palace gates. The change in temperature was perceptible. The heavy outer walls of the palace concealed a small forest of tropical trees, palms, myrtles and olives that cast intersecting circles of coveted shade. It was a pleasant change from the oppressive, shimmering heat outside the walls.

"Actually, it was serendipitous to run across you."

"Why's that?"

"I was about to send you a message."

That was strange, given that she and Temari had never corresponded. They'd never conversed for more than a sentence or two, actually, and when they did talk it was usually some gruff words from Temari about how indebted she was.

"About what?" Sakura asked, intrigued.

"About your sensei."

"Tsunade?"

"No. Kakashi. He's in town, you know."

Sakura didn't reply.

"So, what's he like?"

"Why do you ask?"

"I met him last night. At a nightclub. He and his friend came up to our table." She paused, as though considering the best way to phrase her next question.

"Is it true that he just got married?"

Sakura blushed. "Um, yes."

"He said it wasn't his idea. Didn't seem happy. Was it some kind of angry father thing?"

"No. No one was pregnant, if that's what you mean. It was at the Hokage's request."

Temari's lips set into a thin, sharp line. "I see."

She walked briskly through the main foyer of the palace, and up a grand flight of stairs. Sakura rushed after her, uncertain of how much to tell her.

"So, you know him pretty well?"

"Yes. I do." Although according to Kakashi, not anywhere near well enough.

"And he's a good person?"

"Yes. Very."

"Well, I'd have to disagree." Temari opened the door to her left, and motioned to Sakura to follow her inside. A spacious room greeted her, its walls hung with thick silk carpets in shade of blue and grey. But Sakura wasn't as overwhelmed by their beauty as she might have been in other circumstances.

"Why?" Sakura asked slowly, afraid of the response. "Why do you disagree?"

"I don't think it's appropriate for a married man— even an unhappily married one— to be hitting on another woman."

"Kakashi..."

"He came on to me last night. Like a tom cat."

"He came on to you?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure of it. Why do you sound so surprised?" A hint of a glower established itself on Temari's brow.

"Oh! It's not you. It's _him_." Sakura took a deep, steadying breath before continuing. "I mean, like you said, what kind of married man does that kind of thing?"

"You agree with me. Good. I have half a mind to teach him a lesson. My girlfriend already has something planned for his buddy."

"His buddy?"

"Shiranui Genma."

Kakashi had taken Genma along with him after rejecting _her_ company? Sakura's fists clenched. Genma was good for one thing, apart from deadly accuracy in battle. And that was procuring sex. For himself, for his friends, for his new acquaintances. Probably for any random Joe on the street. He'd missed his calling, apparently. He would have been the perfect pimp. That Kakashi was even friends with the man made her question his sanity.

There was no mistake that Temari had been correct in her inferences. If Kakashi was spending his vacation with Genma his intentions were clear.

"He said he didn't go in for casual sex."

"What?"

"He told me that. That he doesn't have sex with random women."

"When were you two talking about that?" Temari looked at her companion curiously. Teacher-student relationships rarely touched on the topic of sex.

"There's something you should know. The person Kakashi is married to… is me."

"You?!!" Temari's mouth gaped. "How? Why???"

"I saved Naruto's life."

The wind user smiled as she remembered Sakura's heroic efforts on behalf of her brother. "You seem to be good at that."

"He offered me my choice of husbands as a reward. There was a huge public ceremony. I wasn't counting on that. Kakashi must have been humiliated."

"Is this some new law?"

"No, it's a very old tradition, one of the first on the books. Naruto revived it." With Sakura's help, but Temari didn't need to know that.

"So it has the force of law behind it."

Sakura nodded miserably. She didn't want to cry in front of a kunoichi as strong as Temari. The woman was steel, not base metal like Sakura. She was hard and stainless, untouched by events that caused women of weaker stuff to corrode.

But she also had a reactive side.

Temari jumped up and nearly shouted. "He's your husband! He has no right to treat you this way! What would he do if _you_ were cheating on _him_?"

Sakura shrugged. "I doubt he'd care. He said he didn't consider us married."

"He'd defy his own kage?"

"Not openly. But I can't make him be my husband."

"You mean consummate the marriage."

Sakura's laugh was hollow. "Exactly. He said I can consider him my husband when he shares my bed."

A new light flickered in Temari's raven eyes. "Well, then. We have some work to do."


	3. Page FiftySix

_Authors note: Rated M for graphic sex. Please use discretion._

**The Ends and the Means**

_a kakasaku fanfiction_

_...  
_

_Chapter Three  
_

**_Page Fifty-Six_**

"Piece of cake." Temari burst into Sakura's bedroom, a toothy grin upon her face.

"You got the book?" Sakura looked up from the volume she was reading—Naruto's copy of _The Tale of the Gutsy Ninja_. It was a sweet, enjoyable book, although she was having trouble figuring out just what moral she was supposed to learn from it. She already believed, like Naruto, that the ninja world should be based on peace. Sadly, there didn't seem to be much else to the story, apart from a focus on the main character's dogged determination. Maybe Naruto was comparing the two of them. Sakura could certainly be called tenacious; she'd even been called obsessive at times. But the gutsy ninja's determination was a good thing. Was Naruto telling her it was right to stay focused on Kakashi?

Another orange volume was deposited upon Sakura's bed. The Konoha medic picked up the book the way she might handle a particularly virulent specimen. Unfortunately, however she had no gloves. It was hard to believe that a book banned by several countries was written by the same author as the one she'd been reading. The only similarity she saw between them was the color of their covers.

"He couldn't keep his paws off me. You're all set up for tonight."

Temari smelled faintly of alcohol and cigarettes, Sakura noticed, and her eyes were bright with excitement. Her second "date" with Kakashi had obviously gone well.

"You'll need to read the book. Kakashi pointed out a couple of passages to me. You wouldn't believe how he went on and on and on about _Icha Icha's_ literary merits. Like a complete otaku." Temari giggled as she fell on the bed. "He actually thought giving it to me was _his_ idea."

Sakura lifted this book's cover and noted with interest that the volume opened itself to page fifty-six. The colored plate on this page was a bit dog-eared at the edges, indicating it was of particular interest to the copy ninja.

Sakura turned the book sideways, then upside down in an attempt to determine the owners of the pictures' intertwined arms and legs.

So this was what interested the copy ninja: pretzel sex.

"You should probably read it. I promised him I would."

"Why on Earth did you do that?" Sakura regarded her host incredulously.

"He wanted to talk about _Saikou no jutsu_. And I wasn't about to share that with him. _Icha, Icha _was a diversion."

"What exactly is _Saikou_?"

"A sexual jutsu passed down through the kunoichi in my family. Classified. It's typically only used when the recipient is targeted for extermination."

"To keep it secret."

Temari nodded. "He's going to press you for it. It might be a good idea to think of a substitute jutsu."

Sakura smiled. She had just the thing.

Before she died, Shisou had passed on to Sakura a book she'd always referred to as her grimoire. It was filled with jutsu Tsunade had developed that couldn't be described as strictly medical. Some were sexual jutsu, while others were cosmetic. Her chakra-intensive Genesis Rebirth was described in detail, as were numerous techniques for increasing a lover's stamina. Being the industrious student that she was, Sakura had immediately memorized the hundred-odd jutsu in the book. For once she was glad of her tendency to do things to excess. Those jutsu would definitely come in handy tonight.

"I've been thinking about what you should wear. I have a couple of sexy nightgowns—"

"Why do you have sexy nightgowns? I thought you were a virgin."

"They're part of my _trousseau_." Temari rolled her eyes. "For my wedding night. Come with me— you can choose the one you like best." Temari picked up the orange book, and dashed down the hall. It was obvious that she was excited about the plan they'd hatched.

Sakura followed her into a room which was utterly unlike the space she'd been assigned. Her room was elegant, cool and restrained. This room was an exercise in the rococo, with gilded woodwork, padded, silk-covered walls, and pillows everywhere. It was like stepping into the boudoir of a western princess, one with very expensive tastes.

"You'll need to smell like me, too. I've been wearing this, lately." Temari crossed the room to a skirted vanity and tossed a crystal flask across the room. Sakura opened the expensive-looking bottle and sniffed it tentatively. It did smell like Temari, fresh and brash.

"Now for clothes. It's a good thing we're about the same size. You'll only have to _henge_ your head. That will definitely save on chakra. And you won't need to focus so hard." Temari threw open the door to a closet lining one wall and rummaged through a collection of neatly hung clothes. She pulled out several candidates and handed them to her guest.

Sakura blushed. Her physical similarity to Temari was no coincidence, although she'd never admit this. Sakura had specifically chosen the wind user's body as a model when she put her Shisou's bust enhancement jutsu to use. Her new, improved body was permanent and _real_— and it was all Sakura. The jutsu had just given certain cells and tissues a nudge in the right direction. Not that anyone had noticed the sudden change in her physique—particularly not Kakashi. And she knew he liked a nice pair. She'd heard Naruto and Sai mention it on several occasions. But Sakura was sure she could staple raw chicken cutlets to her chest and Kakashi wouldn't notice. It was as if she didn't exist to him.

"I guess the white one." Sakura held up a padded hanger holding a long, silk nightgown. It was elegant, not risqué, although its gossamer fabric would leave little to any viewer's imagination.

"Kakashi is having drinks with my brother in a little while. I told him to leave at 11 p.m. and circle around to the back of the palace. I think you should use this room. It's more elegant than yours, of course, and there's no telling whether Kakashi has ever been to this part of the palace. Gaara's house proud, believe it or not. Sometimes he gives tours. Pisses off the staff." Temari walked across the room, to a set of double doors leading out onto a furnished balcony. "Leave these open, and a light on. I'll make sure the others on this side are unlit. Luckily Kankuro is out of town, and the other rooms in this wing are unoccupied. Gaara doesn't sleep up here often. He's so busy managing the village that he usually crashes downstairs." Temari winked. "So, you two will be all alone."

Sakura's host hastily retreated from the room. "You've got a lot to do in the next few hours, so I'll leave you. Good luck! I'll be rooting for you."

"Wait. Before you go," Sakura embraced the outspoken wind user with a heartfelt hug. "This is for you." She unfastened the clasp of the necklace she wore, and hung the delicate jade pendant on her newfound friend. "Thank you for everything you've done."

Once the door was shut and latched behind her, Sakura tried on the expensive negligee and stared at herself in the room's full-length mirror. She smirked, although not at her reflection. Doubtless Kakashi would find a use for that long silvered piece of glass, if what she'd seen of _Icha, Icha_ was any indication of his sexual tastes. He'd probably try to mount the mirror on the ceiling.

Sakura worked on her hair for a while, struggling to comb it into the four spiky ponytails Temari typically wore.

Then she wondered exactly what she was doing.

Kakashi was planning on cheating on his wife tonight. He was making a great effort, in fact, to seduce a virgin. He'd shown himself to be a liar. It was obvious from his actions that he did sleep around, that he did have one night stands with random women. And it was clear to Sakura that he'd just said these words to her to underscore the fact that he did not want to sleep with a woman he'd never consider his wife.

The revelation was humiliating. Certainly Kakashi deserved what she had planned for him.

But the scheme she'd concocted with Temari's aid was another deception. While it was true that Kakashi had challenged her to find a way to consummate their marriage, he couldn't have meant his words. No good could come of tricking him into sleeping with her. The copy ninja was angry enough at the _idea_ of being Sakura's husband. What would he do when he found out he'd mistakenly fucked his wife?

Kakashi would never speak to her again. Sakura was certain of it. And he'd do whatever he could to stay out of her path. He'd leave Konoha and live on the front line, or hire himself out to perform any and all tasks. He'd do whatever it took to rid himself of his albatross wife, even if that unnecessarily put his own life in danger.

She should call the plan off. Then she should do the thing that had been staring her in the face all along. Sakura owed Kakashi an apology. She should go to his hotel and tell him he was right. That she had no right to make him her husband, and he needn't consider himself bound in any way. Then she'd make a graceful exit from his life.

But that wasn't really enough. She'd wronged him. He deserved some kind of compensation for the humiliation she put him through.

Sakura lay on the sumptuously appointed bed and closed her eyes in concentration. It didn't take long: she quickly decided how she'd make things up to the copy ninja.

The medic rolled onto her belly and paged through the Kakashi's copy of the vile _Icha, Icha Paradise, w_hich, it turned out, was not so vile after all. Yes, the illustrations left nothing to the imagination, but the writing _was_ good. The story was all about a woman in a foreign land who lived by her wits, and often on her back. But she was truly liberated, and an equal to the men around her. She didn't rely on tricks or lies to accomplish her goals. She was upfront and honest with the men she invited into her bed, and her sexual licentiousness matched theirs.

Sakura wished she was like the heroine, Junko. Her traits were obviously what Kakashi wanted in a woman.

Well, tonight he'd have her.

* * *

"I presumed Genma would be joining us." Gaara lifted a tooled copper carafe and poured a steaming hot coffee for his guest.

"He had other plans."

"With women, I presume." It was hard to tell when the Kazekage was joking. His features barely moved as he spoke, and registered little in the way of emotion.

"Yes. I'm sure it was with a woman. Makie something or other. A kunoichi. They both seemed smitten."

Gaara laughed. At least, Kakashi thought the hollow noise emanating from the young leader of Suna could be described as such.

"He'll have his hands full, then. Makie's a tough one. Came to us off the streets. She was my sister's special project for a while. She seems to have instilled in her all of her beliefs about the true role of a kunoichi."

"Beliefs?"

"Let's just say Temari doesn't have much faith in men. That's what comes of one's father having three wives."

"She's your half-sister. I hadn't realized that."

Gaara tipped his head in the slightest of nods.

"She'll be lucky to get out."

"What do you mean? From Suna?" Kakashi had never imagined Gaara would speak of his village in such a way.

"This isn't the best place to be a woman." Gaara shrugged almost imperceptibly. "I'm in talks with the Tsuchikage. To marry her off."

"Oonoki?" Poor Temari. Poor, _poor_ Temari. No wonder she'd been so willing to persuade. This might be her last opportunity to bed a man in his double digits.

"Ame's still giving us trouble, and Earth has been making noises like they might want to take it over. A marriage would do a lot to head that off."

"Temari knows?"

"She understands what's expected of her. But no, she doesn't know the specifics yet."

Kakashi resolved to show the future wife of the aged Tsuchikage the time of her life, as it was likely _that_ man would be unable to do so.

"Getting back to Genma. I wouldn't have expected the two of you to be so close."

"Why is that?" It was strange to hear such a personal remark from the Kazekage.

"He's… the opposite of you in many ways. You're reserved, laid back. Yet a stickler for certain details."

"And he's not. Granted. But it would be boring to have friends who were exactly like you."

Gaara's pale turquoise eyes locked on Kakashi's single obsidian one. "I question his judgment."

"Oh?"

"A man like him, so controlled by sex. It makes me wonder how trustworthy he'd be should he be targeted by enemy kunoichi."

Kakashi hid his irritation. This conversation was completely inappropriate. No man of Suna, no matter how high ranked had the right to criticize a Konoha ninja. "Genma is a fine soldier. He puts away the silliness when it's appropriate to do so."

"I'll take you at your word, then. Sorry to have brought it up."

Their talk moved to more mundane matters. Kakashi let Gaara direct the conversation. Not only was this protocol, it was a hell of a lot easier than thinking up new topics to discuss. He doubted Gaara was up for an in depth monologue on the virtues of _Icha, Icha,_ and Kakashi had little else to offer. Nevertheless, the two chatted until the appointed hour. Surprisingly Kakashi was glad that his book was not with him. Several times during the conversation he'd reached for it, only to remember it wasn't on his person. But reading in the Kazekage's presence undoubtedly would have given offense. The bored copy ninja smiled and nodded instead, ignoring the urge to glance at the ormolu clock that stood in one corner of the room.

Finally, with an easy excuse about needing to get to bed, Kakashi left the palace. He slipped past guards on their mid-evening coffee break, and had no trouble finding Temari's bedroom. As she'd promised, it was the only lighted room on the second floor of the palace's east wing. He grabbed a flower from a nearby bed before scaling the cut stone outer wall of the building to land agilely on the intended balcony.

The glass-paned double doors were ajar, and Kakashi opened them silently, smiling as he saw the object of his seduction through a gossamer curtain.

"You look beautiful. White suits you."

Temari looked much as she had the day before, apart from the change in attire. Her sheer gown rippled as she moved toward him, and he couldn't take his eyes off the magnificent sight of her perfectly formed breasts. They were even bigger than he expected: she must bind them during the day, he reasoned. Then he silently laughed at the tangent on which his mind seemed intent on embarking. Why fantasize about the breasts that were right in front of you?

He handed her the rather sad-looking flower he'd grabbed from the garden below, and wondered at the strange expression Temari made. Maybe she realized he'd nicked it from the grounds. If he were smarter he would have stopped by a florist, he decided.

Never one to dwell on unrepairable mistakes, Kakashi slid his mask down, earning a gasp for his effort. He needed that. His last few dates hadn't remarked on his looks, which made him wonder if he was losing them. The copy ninja didn't object when his pig tailed blonde ran a green-painted fingernail along his jaw line.

"You painted them? For me?" She didn't seem the type for such vanities.

Temari blushed attractively. He had to admit he liked this softer side of the wind user. The redness high on her cheeks made her seem more vulnerable than she was in real life, like something out of one of his fantasies. This Temari was different than the one he'd sat with earlier in the evening. She seemed less sure of her self, and definitely less abrasive. The change was an attractive one.

"I read the book," the wind user offered in the alto voice he'd found grating in the past. Now it seemed melodious.

"And what did you think?"

"That you're very fond of page fifty six."

"Ah." It was his turn to blush. The pile driver. He _had_ spent inordinate amounts of time with that particular image.

"Give me your hitae-ate."

"Um… why?"

"Why do you think, silly?"

"You seriously want to act it out?"

"That's why you gave me the book, isn't it? In the hope that I might be inspired? Or less shocked when you brought the idea up?"

"Well…er."

_Yes._

"It's okay to admit that you have needs."

"Do you have…needs?"

"Right now I need you. Would you like to watch me undress?"

"No. I'd like to do it myself. May I?"

She offered herself to him, and he removed her gown tantalizingly slowly. His lips followed his fingers. They feathered along her shoulders, gently grazing her heavy breasts to follow the fabric rippling over those mounds, then moving to her waist and to her thighs. He stopped at her toes, lifting each foot to suck their digits in turn with a deliberateness that he hoped was enticing.

Her moan suggested it was.

She took his hand and guided him to his feet, then kissed him languorously.

"What about these?" Kakashi almost whined the words as he fingered the silken fabric of her panties.

"Later." She untied his forehead protector instead, smoothing and refolding its cloth before tying it tightly to cover Kakashi's eyes. "I'm putting a jutsu on it, so don't even try to remove it."

"Yes, ma'am." The copy ninja bit his lip in anticipation. They really were going to reenact a favorite scene from his favorite book. He hadn't even hoped for this. Women were put off, to put it mildly, when he brought up _Icha, Icha_, but Temari… Temari was different. Fascinatingly different.

"I wouldn't think of it," he added. "I'm putting myself in your hands. But… don't you think it's a little bit advanced considering that you're a virgin?"

"I'm a kunoichi, too. I wouldn't be worth my salt if I wasn't willing to try anything, would I?

Kakashi nodded in agreement, although the truth certainly didn't bear out her rhetoric. Several women, all kunoichi, had stared at him in disgust and reproach when he'd brought up similar topics. In fact, he'd never found a woman willing to try out such an exotic technique.

Temari really was something else.

"Let's work our way to up to it, shall we?"

"Come here." Kakashi's lover for the evening tugged his hand, pulling him towards the bed. She removed his vest first, allowing it to fall to the floor with a heavy clunk, then slid her hands along his well-muscled chest as she reached for the bottom hem of the thin turtleneck he wore.

The kunoichi gasped again as she got a good look the warrior's chest. So many scars, indicating so many victories. She couldn't resist tracing the contours of each. There was something quite arousing about these trophies, and he shuddered delightfully as the tip of her tongue anointed each with a gentle caress. She pulled the unneeded shirt over his head, careful to make sure his blindfold remained in place. Then she released the henge that had transformed her face into Temari's.

Sakura was glad to be rid of the girl. She wanted Kakashi for herself tonight, for her alone. If this was to be her only night with the man, she wanted him to spend it with her only. Even if he never realized it.

There was something freeing in this fact— the fact that Kakashi would never know his lover was Sakura allowed the kunoichi to be naughtier than she might otherwise have been, and far less inhibited than the Haruno Sakura of the Leaf would ever be. She dropped to her knees and loosed him of his navy blue sweats in a single sharp movement. His briefs disappeared with the next, although admittedly they were a bit harder to remove, given the hardened bulge half hidden beneath them.

Sakura inhaled Kakashi's masculine fragrance with a fervent wish that she would remember it forever. He smelled the way a man should smell, of machine oil and black powder, of musk and sweat… and sex. It was curious to realize she recognized his personal scent. He'd held her in his arms once, when he rescued her from Sasuke. Although the moment was brief, the fragrance was the same. It was a scent of raw, masculine power that threatened to drive her to abandon.

Sakura grasped his length, and ran her curled fingers along flesh hardened in arousal. His skin was silken, which surprised her. She came closer and applied her tongue to the very tip of his organ. He felt like velvet, softer and finer than the draperies adorning the bed behind her. Kakashi groaned, and she took this as a signal to take him into her mouth. But only after she licked the opalescent and slightly salty drop of liquid at the very apex of his shaft. His essence.

It didn't take much to please him, she realized after a while, just attention to detail. And certainly Sakura was good at this. She licked and sucked him, putting to use everything she'd ever learned in school, read in books, or heard from her friends. She took him deeply, allowing him to slide along the ridged surface of her hard palate to the more accommodating tissue of the back of her throat. He moaned, and she pulled away from him, then allowed him entrance again, moving slowly, then quickly, until she felt him grow still harder. Kakashi tugged on the two pigtails highest on her crown in silent message to take him deeper still, and she gasped at the sensation. Her scalp was raw from her earlier feline interaction, and scraping it into four silly ponytails had been difficult enough.

"That hurts. Ow, my scalp." She pulled away from him and loosened her hair.

"Sparring injury?" Kakashi asked quietly.

"Hardly." She caressed his cock once more. "Is this good?"

"Temari, it's incredible."

"Don't call me that." He could call her anything but that. "Junko. I'm your Junko tonight."

Kakashi chuckled. "Junko. Are you the woman of my dreams?"

"I'd like to be," Sakura replied honestly.

"Then let me take this off." The copy ninja reached for the hitae-ate obscuring his vision. "Let me see this woman. My Junko."

Sakura slapped his hand. "No. That's not what happens on page fifty-six. Junko seduces Jira while holding him hostage. He never sees her."

"But I've seen you."

"Please play along." She hated to add yet another lie to the small mountain she was building, but it seemed like she had no choice. "No one's allowed to look at me naked until my wedding night. You can't see me."

"I've already seen you."

"Not while we're um… doing it."

_So I can fuck her, but I can't look at her while I do it? _Kakashi shook his head at this tortured logic, but decided to go along with it. Being blindfolded was a favorite fantasy of his, and Temari's insistence only improved the storyline."Okay," he conceded. "But what will you give me?"

"Anything you want. Anything."

"Kiss me." He lifted her up easily, without the clumsiness one might expect from a temporarily blind man. And once in his arms he ravaged her. Her lips were his, and he claimed them with a passion Sakura had never seen from the man. Kakashi wasn't the type to wear his emotions on his sleeve, but tonight he was different.

He knelt in front of her, stripping her of her panties and throwing them aside, then spoke softly.

"Lie down."

He followed her to the bed, and easily located her within its abundance of pillows. He threw those aside, so that she was flat on her back, and began to anoint her with a plethora of kisses. He might have kissed every square centimeter of her skin: he was that attentive. Her thighs moved apart, seemingly of their own accord as he neared the core of her desire. The small fear she'd always nursed of the likely pain of her first encounter dissipated like fog on a hot summer morning.

"You need to—" A condom:Kakashi had to wear one. If he ever found out about this—who he'd really slept with—Sakura didn't want him thinking she'd been attempting to get pregnant. This wasn't about entrapment. Not anymore.

"Hush." He parted her legs and the velvet folds within, and smiled in recognition of her body's eagerness to meet his.

He kissed her in a way she didn't expect, in a way that started a fire coursing through her. It scared her.

Sakura tried to move away, but he wouldn't relent.

"You promised," he murmured. "Lie back. You'll enjoy it."

He held her hand as his other guided him in his explorations. It was clear he knew what he was doing, he knew his way around her anatomy as well as any sighted man. And he was gentle, so gentle. Sakura closed her eyes and allowed herself to relax enough to enjoy his touch. And when he slid a finger inside of her, and then two, she relished the sensation.

Their interaction was different than a furtive, embarrassed session in self-pleasure. That was almost like tickling oneself—necessarily predictable—while this was like being tickled by another. Sakura suddenly understood why books focused solely on sex were written, and why pornographic images were so terribly popular. She could spend hours with Kakashi's head between her thighs, licking her, stroking her, readying her.

Kakashi was a silver-maned cat, greedily lapping from a plate of cream. And his razor-stubbled skin was a feline tongue, rough, yet sensual against her skin. The sensations he brought forth were wickedly intense, but somehow they were not enough.

She wanted him to penetrate her, she realized, for him to join himself with her. Sakura began to move in time to the thrusts of his digits, which grew ever more insistent. She spread herself wide open, grinding her pelvis against him, hissing with pleasure as his tongue pressed harder against her burning core.

"Please," she said finally. "I want to feel you."

"First I want you to come."

His words kindled something in her—she wanted it, too. She let go, then, ignoring the fact that her most intimate, private parts were hard against his face. She bucked against him, moaning loudly as he carried her to a climax of a kind she'd never experienced alone.

She wondered what it would feel like to have him inside of her.

"Kakashi."

"Not yet." He lifted himself up, and worked his way up her body, hands leading the way.

"I like this."

"What?"

"Being blind."

"Why? Because I'm in control?"

Kakashi's lopsided smile was devastating. It showed off his dimples, something Sakura had always found terribly attractive in the opposite sex.

"Maybe. I've always wanted a woman as accomplished as me. Someone powerful in both the field and the bed. You fit the bill, Temari."

Sakura bit her lip.

"Junko," she whispered.

"You have the most lovely tits, by the way." He cupped hands around them, reminding Sakura that the things Kakashi liked best about her were either deceptions or enhancements.

Sakura sighed, which Kakashi interpreted as a sign of pleasure. He pulled one hardened nipple into his mouth as his fingers caressed its twin.

"So soft. And firm. Do you rub lotion into them every night?"

"No. Should I?"

"That's a job for a very lucky husband. I envy him."

Sakura wanted to laugh at the irony of his statement. But she held back.

"I want to fuck them." Kakashi nipped at her nipple, tugging it until he elicited a moan.

"My...breasts?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi nodded. "You have no idea how fuckable you are."

"Well then do it. We've got all night." Sakura certainly hoped so. If this was to be her only time with the man she truly loved she wanted it to last as long as possible.

"Men's bodies don't work that way. Especially when you get to be my age."

"There's _saikou no jutsu_."

Kakashi removed himself from her breast immediately, like an infant surprised by garlic-flavored milk. Her words had certainly gotten his attention.

"You said it was classified."

"I can make an exception. If you want to stay with me tonight."

"You know I do."

She pressed her breasts together as he straddled her, and she licked and sucked the tip of his cock each time it came close to her mouth.

"Press them tighter," Kakashi growled, as his movements increased in urgency. "God, I wish I could see you."

"Use your imagination." Sakura grasped Kakashi's cock and channeled chakra through her tongue. He groaned as she lavished his member with cool, electrical pulses of raw energy.

"W-what are you doing?"

"Just a taste of that jutsu I promised."

Kakashi pulled away and fucked her recklessly, crying out as though he'd been stabbed when he came all over her bountiful breasts. He breathed deeply for a minute, then began to massage her breasts, working the hot, sticky result of his passion into her tender flesh.

Sakura grabbed his hands and drew them toward her mouth, then slowly sucked each finger clean.

The knowledge that she wanted to taste him was almost enough to drive Kakashi mad.

"Are you ready for _saikou_?" she asked quietly.

"I'm ready for anything you want to do to me."

Sakura guided Kakashi into a supine posture, and grasped his now flaccid member. This time she directed chakra not only to her tongue, but to the walls of her mouth and throat, surrounding him with a small ocean of energy that she slowly pressed into his spent tissues.

It was a strange sensation. The satiety Kakashi felt slowly ebbed away, replaced with a lustful, burning sensation of an intensity he had never before experienced. It was as though an animal were possessing him, a feral cat sensing the fragrance of a female in heat.

He wanted to pounce on his talented lover, spread her wide and claim her as his own in the way of every animal. But he waited, heart pounding until his lover was done, and his body was restored to a state more ready for carnal endeavor than he'd been at sixteen.

"You on top?" Kakashi murmured once his sensual angel had finished her restoration.

"Is that what you'd like?" Sakura replied.

"It will be easier."

"A condom. Do you have one?"

"In my shuriken pouch."

Sakura dropped to the floor and rummaged through Kakashi's discarded belongings after paying a hurried visit to her nightstand. After pulling out a small, square foil packet, she returned to the pouch the orange volume he'd lent to the real Temari, as she had no longer had a need for it. This was for him, she told herself. All of this was for him, small recompense for her unacceptable behavior. The kunoichi climbed back into bed and unrolled the thin membrane over his waiting, lustful organ. Then poised herself above it.

Kakashi could feel her body heat, and the unforgettable scent of her arousal.

"Go slowly, at first."

Sakura pressed herself tentatively against her new husband and wondered how an organ so delicately silky could simultaneously be so hard. She took him into her slowly, but stopped when she felt an insistent resistance. She slid up his adamantine flesh, then down again, but it hurt to go further.

Kakashi understood. He placed a hand on each of her hips, and in one swift motion, crashed her hips down against him.

It didn't hurt as much as she expected. Really, it was only uncomfortable. The slight twinge she felt was more than mitigated by the sensation of his hardened cock inside of her.

Kakashi filled her, and the pressure of his flesh against hers was exquisite. It was almost as though they were made for each other. Sakura tried not to laugh at the bitter irony of the thought. She focused instead on his pleasure, and hers, on this one night of passion that she'd remember fondly forever.

She knew what to do next, and she did it well.

The copy ninja placed a hand on each of her breasts, smiling as they bobbed up and down to match the timing of her increasingly rough movements against him. If only he could see those glistening breasts, watch the glorious sight of their flesh joining and separating again and again. She was wanton, as wanton as he'd ever fantasized a lover to be, eager to take him inside herself, eager to please him.

He felt as though she were worshipping him with her body, molding her flesh to his every desire.

"Are you ready to try something else?" he asked with stuttering breath. Assuming he could last a bit longer, that is.

"Anything." She lifted herself off him.

"Get out of the bed." Kakashi raised his hand and she guided him to his feet. He reached for her, and pulled her into a long embrace, biting her lower lip gently, exploring the small dark cave of her mouth with his own eager tongue.

Then he lifted her up. She instinctively locked her legs around his waist, but loosened them when he grabbed her firm derriere and pressed her onto his waiting flesh. He grasped her hips and directed them into a slow, circular movement that ground her more deeply against him.

"Help me walk to the wall."

Sakura guided her lover to the outer edge of the room, shuddering as the movements of his legs produced yet another sensation of the flesh. Kakashi braced his back against the plastered outside wall, and loosened his grip on his lover.

"Use it for leverage," Kakashi ordered, and Sakura complied, pressing her feet against the whitened surface, half lifting herself off her partner with sensual grace. She grasped his shoulders as he pressed downward on her hips urging her to take him in more deeply, to fill herself completely.

The feeling of Kakashi inside of her, filling her up was almost too much to take. Sakura paused, but Kakashi pressed her against him again, moving her pelvis against him in an exquisite dance.

"I think I might be—"

Kakashi moved one hand to her core and caressed the bundle of nerves that lay at its apex.

Sakura cried out as she rammed herself against him, pushing him to the brink as she rushed past him.

"Are you with me?" Kakashi asked in a gentle voice.

Sakura nodded, too breathless to answer, mindless of the fact that he couldn't see her.

"Have you had enough? Or do you want to give page fifty-six a shot?"

The way he said "page fifty-six" reminded her of a child asking for ice-cream.

"Sure."

"Sure your neck is strong enough?" He didn't wait for an answer—Kakashi was too eager to try this particular sexual move.

He held her hands tightly, and directed her to lean back slowly. She did, until her back touched the ground. Then Kakashi let go of her hands, one at a time, unhooked her legs from his waist and spread her thighs wide.

It was exactly as he imagined. No, it was _almost_ as good. It would be perfect if he could see her face, watch her moan in abandon as he fucked her silly.

But he didn't ask.

Instead Kakashi focused on the sensation of her flesh against his own, and nearly lost it as she tightened spasmodically around him. This was the perfect position to caress the most hidden part of her anatomy, that small circle of nerve endings deep within her that promised bliss, if the touch was right. Kakashi wanted to please her, wanted to hear her scream his name in throaty passion. And he could tell he was bringing her to the verge again.

"Harder," she gasped. "I swear I'm going to pass out." The blood must be rushing to her head, adding to the near dizzying experience of orgasm.

Kakashi pumped into the women he recognized as his perfect fit, sexually. Temari was accommodating, so willing to attempt everything he'd asked of her. The idea of giving her up wasn't sitting well with him. She was too good, too giving, too game.

Another three strokes and she shuddered in climax. He joined her, pounding against her trembling flesh, and braced himself against her as he found his own release.

"Temari. God, Temari."

She didn't answer. With difficulty Kakashi knelt, unwrapping Sakura's legs from his waist as he did so, and careful to grab a hold of the condom's base to make sure its use wasn't in vain.

"It's ripped. The condom." His lover's voice trembled with alarm.

"Don't worry." Kakashi ran his hand along Sakura's love-wracked body until he reached her face. His fingers marked the place for a much needed kiss, a slow one meant to suggest to her how he really felt about her.

"I'll do the right thing, Temari."

"What do you mean?" Two heads collided as Sakura bolted upright.

"I don't want this to end."

Sakura pulled away the hand he'd lifted to his face in a romantic gesture. She could not believe what she was hearing.

"_You're married_."

"I don't love her. But you, you're another story."

"You're just going to leave her?" Sakura's face fell.

"I can't. But you don't really want to be with the Tsuchikage, do you? He's an old man."

"The Tsuchikage...? _Wait_. You're saying I should be your mistress?"

"No. My _wife_. Plural marriage is legal here, isn't it?"

Sakura slapped him, then ran for the bathroom, locking it behind her. "Get out!" she yelled through gritted teeth.

Kakashi stumbled blindly to the door.

"Temari? What did I say?"

"I said, '_Go_!'"

"No. I won't."

"I'll call my brother if you don't. He'll have your head. And by the way, he's got a key to the door."

"What about the hitae-ate? I can't see, Temari!"

"It was just genjutsu. Undo it." Sakura sank to the floor, heartbroken. It was bad enough that the man of her dreams didn't love her. But that she'd helped him fall in love with another was worse. Sakura managed to hold back her tears until Kakashi was gone. But when she heard the thud of an awkward landing in the shrubbery below her balcony, and the accompanying groan of pain their sharp thorns produced, she let loose.

Unfortunately, the real Temari heard her. She banged on the bedroom door until Sakura let her in, and demanded to know what was wrong.

"You're a mess! What did that bastard do to you?"

"N-nothing." Sakura choked back a hiccupping sob before continuing. "You didn't hear?"

Temari looked at her guest as though she'd just been accused of an unmentionable perversion. "Of course not! I was downstairs with my brother this whole time. Naruto is coming tomorrow and Gaara had a few things to get ready."

"He is?" Not that it mattered. Sakura had no intention of being in Suna for the Hokage's arrival.

"So what's wrong?" With uncharacteristic sensitivity, Temari knelt before Sakura and took a trembling hand in her own.

"It was a mistake. A huge mistake."

"Don't tell me that Hatake-san has a tiny little—"

"No! He was great! It was more than I ever imagined it would be. But—" Sakura stopped short. It was too humiliating to admit it.

"Tell me." This was said with the forcefulness typically used by Temari for even the most mundane statements.

"He's in love with you. He asked me—_you_—to marry him."

"_What?!?!!"_ The wind user's face reddened, but not in embarrassment. The woman was livid. "That bastard wants to marry me when he's already your husband?"

Sakura nodded miserably. "He said you could be his second wife."

She'd never before noticed how much Temari resembled a raging elephant when provoked. Sakura backed away from the girl and grabbed a pillow from the mound on the floor, as protection should said loxodont rampage in a hatred-blinded fury.

"He's going to pay. I don't know how yet, but Kakashi's going to pay." Temari turned to Sakura, a too sweet smile masking the rage beneath. "You should sleep. You look exhausted. We'll talk in the morning, okay?"

The wind user walked Sakura back to her own room, with a supporting hand on her shoulder. With a hug of encouragement she kissed her friend good night.

"I promise you things will get better."

Sakura responded with a nod and a tear, although she couldn't agree.

When the door clicked shut, Sakura set to work. There wasn't much to pack, but an explanatory note or two was in order. She set Naruto's book atop her nightstand, with a brief message to Temari atop it. Her host would make sure the Hokage's precious volume was returned to him. Sakura attempted a slightly longer message to Kakashi, but her hand shook too much, smearing the ink. She spoiled several pieces of paper before she gave up, leaving a tear-stained, sloppy note behind.

Then the defeated kunoichi took her backpack and left the same way Kakashi had, although she landed a bit more cleanly. Heavy clouds hid the night's full moon. This was to her advantage. Sakura would be far from Suna by the time anyone noticed she was missing.


	4. On the After Effects of Secret Jutsu

_Author's note: Rated M for graphic sex. Please use discretion._

**The Ends and the Means**

_a kakasaku fanfiction_

...

_Chapter Four  
_

**_On the After Effects of Secret Jutsu_**

It was impossible to sleep after what she'd done to him. _Saikou no jutsu_, it turned out had long-lasting effects. He'd left Sakura three hours earlier, but Kakashi's hard-on still raged, as though it had a mind and a mission of its own. A cold shower didn't help, nor did a hot one. Nor did his usual fantasies or the cheap pay-per-view porno on his room's ancient television set. Kakashi got off, sure, but the erection remained. As did the desire.

To say that tonight was the highlight of Kakashi's sexual career would be a gross understatement. Temari and he were like black powder and a match, an explosive combination. The fact that she might soon be married off to a man who couldn't possibly appreciate her rankled.

_He_ should have her. Every night. Twice a night. More. Kakashi knew he wouldn't be able to think straight until he did. Until she was his. It didn't matter that out of bed she was acerbic—sometimes downright rude. He _needed_ her.

But she wouldn't have him. Whatever he'd said had ruined things. Was it the implication that she could become his mistress that did it? Or was the idea of being his second wife distasteful? Or was it his willingness to ignore her duty to her village?

He hadn't meant these comments. That was the other Kakashi talking—the one currently engaged in a priapic rebellion. _This_ Kakashi was strictly monogamous. This Kakashi had resolved himself to relegating this night to the top of his fantasy list, to be replayed every night for the rest of his life.

The resolution didn't help him now, however.

It was clear the illustrious copy ninja wouldn't be sleeping until the situation down below resolved itself. So Kakashi climbed out of bed, dressed and left the hotel to wander Suna's empty streets. There was nothing to see, really. The nightclubs were closed as were the stores, with steel gratings obscuring any treasures inside, and the streets were free of the nocturnal animals that made Konoha a lively city at night.

The streets' barrenness was a good thing, however. It gave him the quiet he needed to think about his relationship to Sakura. She was probably back in Konoha, pining for him, for a person she really didn't know. What would the rather staid kunoichi think if Kakashi were to take her into his bedroom for a sampling of the fun Temari had so greatly enjoyed? Sakura would run screaming, no doubt, yelling "Hentai!" and "Pervert!" until a small crowd gathered outside his house.

Kakashi wasn't about to risk another public humiliation.

He had been too harsh on her. It was easy to see this, now that he was in a similar situation. To be filled with longing for a person you couldn't have was unbearable. It was a tribute to Sakura that she'd foregone the usual kunoichi tactics of trickery for a more forthright approach. Her tactics were unacceptable, to be sure, but refreshingly direct. Sakura had tried to take what she wanted—selfishly—but there were times in Kakashi's life where he'd attempted the same.

The copy ninja had no intention of sharing this epiphany with his so-called wife. She'd take his words as a signal that he was warming up to her. She'd never realize that would never happen. They were too mismatched. But he would be kinder to her the next time he saw her. He wouldn't walk away with a sneer on his face to leave her surrounded by a half-drunk audience of gossiping villagers. He'd treat her with the respect she deserved as a colleague and former student.

Kakashi's thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched giggle. The narrow street he walked was empty, and the sound was distorted, indicating the laugh had bounced around before finding his ears. With an educated guess about its source, Kakashi turned left, into the large piazza that served as Suna's marketplace. It was empty at this time of day, well before dawn, except for the fountain at its center, and the elevated stage that stood at the far end of the space.

The laugh sounded again, this time mingled with a male voice.

Kakashi approached its likely source, sticking to the deeper shadows of the square's periphery lest he be discovered. He blinked in shock at the tableau he discovered.

Five beautiful women, all similar in looks, dark haired, lithe and well endowed, stood around a half-dressed man, although only one was caressing him. One of the nymphs moved and Kakashi identified the man as Shiranui Genma, tour guide to the sexually needy. The senbon stuck in his mouth was his clue, along with his remaining attire. Genma's ridiculously loose pants were unfastened and the girl who caressed him was now working on his boxers. They had hearts on them. Kakashi stifled a chuckle at the indignities Genma endured to get laid.

"Makie—" he heard Genma call, as the girl led him towards a platform not far from the fountain. "What's going on? Where are we? I thought you said you were going to show me the town."

"I'm Maiko," the brunette said. "But Makie's here, too. All five of us."

"All _five_ of you?" Kakashi heard Genma ask, in a voice full of wonder.

"We do lots of things together," was the saucy reply.

"But how did you know—"

"That you wanted all of us? Together? It was kind of obvious. And now you'll have us." This sister brushed between his legs with a feathery touch. "Where _are_ you in there? Your crotch is at your knees."

"Watch your step," another added.

Genma wore an expression of pure, untempered joy as the sisters led him up a short flight of stairs and onto the solidly built stage where public shamings took place. Kakashi moved closer, eager to witness the rest of this interaction.

"Where are we going? Are you going to take turns or … share me all at once?"

"Look how hard he is," one sister murmured to another, as she pulled his boxers to his ankles. "I just can't wait."

"Take your shirt off," the woman Kakashi remembered as Megumi said. She helped him unbutton the garment, then lavished Genma's naked torso with a flutter of kisses. "Hands off the blindfold."

What was it with Suna girls and blindfolds, anyway?

Another sister approached with a peacock feather, and brushed the senbon-user with light, practiced strokes that caused him to shiver. Or maybe that was the breeze. Suna nights were cool year-round.

"I heard you like bondage," said the shortest of the quintet, striking Genma's ass with a cat of nine tails that looked well used. "Well, then. This is your night!"

Genma groaned in expectant agony. "God, how did I get so lucky? You aren't angry? Honestly, I forgot all about our date, Maiko."

"I'm Megumi. And you scheduled my date at the same time as Mirai's."

"Ah, did I? Short term memory loss. It's an occupational hazard."

"No worries," was the sweet response. "You're here now, and that's what counts."

"Lean forward and put your hands up," Makie purred. Genma willingly obliged. The kunoichi placed his wrists in the time-smoothed indentations of the wooden pillory that stood on the platform. Her helpful sisters did the rest, pushing Genma's head forward and quickly closing and locking the hinged, upper portion of the restraining device.

The women formed a loose line and took turns kissing him. But after five chaste kisses to the mouth, they abandoned him. It wasn't until he heard the click of their high heels across the stage and down the stairs that Genma realized he'd been had.

"Maiko! Makie! Megumi! Marumi! and, um, Mirai! Where are you going?"

"Home, of course. To take a long, hot bath. Together."

"But…but… what about our evening together?" Genma's whine made Kakashi wince.

"What about it? Chicks before dicks, we always say. Sisters stick together." The other four giggled. "One more thing you should know. Public nudity is a criminal offense."

The quintet walked away in a cloud of giggles, oblivious to the shinobi's cries for forgiveness and mercy.

Kakashi shook his head before doing the same. Genma had certainly gotten what he deserved.

* * *

"You're wanted at the palace."

Kakashi scratched his head as he shut his hotel room door on the early morning messenger.

"Wanted at the palace" couldn't be good. It was probably about Temari. Kakashi dressed in wrinkled clothes and hastily left his room, jounin vest strategically held in front of him. He'd finally fallen asleep at 4 a.m. or so, but he'd awoken to the same raging erection that had kept him up half the night. It wasn't morning wood. That kind of arousal resolved itself almost immediately. This was more tenacious, and almost painful in its urgency.

Kakashi arrived at the great room of the palace to see that it wasn't only the Kazekage that had requested his company. Naruto was there, as well.

"Hokage-sama. Kazekage-sama." Kakashi bowed deeply in their direction, despite the difficulty in doing so. He was pretty sure Izumo and Kotetsu noticed, too. Must the two accompany Naruto _everywhere_?

"It's unfortunate to have to call you here this morning, but there's a matter we must discuss." The formal tone was completely unlike Naruto. Kakashi waited for the other shoe to drop.

"It's about Sakura." Yes, and Temari. Luckily the blonde fan wielder wasn't in the room.

"She's dead, Kakashi."

The copy ninja's eyes widened. "_What?!_ How do you know?"

"My advance team found… her remains, close to the Saber pass."

"Her remains." Kakashi swallowed. The words sounded so final. How was it possible that she was gone?

Izumo continued. "There wasn't much. But what we did find was conclusive. Fabric from her shirt, and a huge chunk of her hair was found in a den. A couple of bones that were definitely human. A cat got her. "

"A cat?" The words barely sank in. Yes, Kakashi was angry at Sakura, furious, even. Yes, he might have throttled her if he'd stayed in Konoha. But he would have never wished this upon her. To be killed by a feline: it must have been savage.

"You came all the way to Suna to tell me my wife is gone? Thank you."

Kotetsu snorted and exchanged a sidelong glance with his partner.

"No," the Kazekage answered. "Naruto is here for diplomatic reasons. Ame has invaded the western frontier."

"Ah." His erection was gone, Kakashi noticed belatedly. The horrifying news must have done the trick. Kakashi shrugged on his vest and stood at attention.

"As Sakura's husband, her remains are yours to dispose of."

"Dispose of?" Kakashi answered numbly. Naruto made it seem as though his late wife was little more than a sack of trash. He didn't mean it, Kakashi knew. The Hokage was clearly devastated by her loss.

And _he_ was, too. Kakashi had cared for Sakura, in his own way. He'd never encountered such a vibrant young woman, nor one so eager to learn. And her strength was amazing, even if it had been bestowed upon her by someone other than himself. She was beautiful, absolutely lovely. And now that she was gone it was easy to admit it: she was sexy. In a kittenish, unknowing way.

Maybe he'd been wrong about her. Sakura was easily his peer in so many ways, even without the title of jounin. If only she hadn't taken the matter of their possible relationship into her own hands. Perhaps he would have eventually noticed her.

No. It would have been hard to get past their former relationship.

"Brother, here is the offender." Temari burst through heavy double doors, towing Genma behind her. The man looked very much the worse for wear. His back was hunched from a night in the pillory, and his ass, barely hidden by his ill-fitting pants showed clear evidence that he'd endured corporal punishment once he was discovered.

"Genma?" The womanizer gave Kakashi an uneasy smile as he passed. It disappeared completely when he faced the kages.

"Given that he is your citizen, not mine, I'll defer to you on this." Genma shook with relief at Gaara's generous words to the Hokage.

"Hokage-sama—"

"We've talked about this before, Genma. I asked you to watch over Kakashi, not to lead him into debauchery. Yet here you are." Naruto sighed. "I'll deal with you later."

Genma slunk off into a corner, and the copy ninja did his best to get Temari's attention in as subtle a way as possible. He needed to apologize.

But the Kazekage's sister looked at Kakashi as though he'd bathed in skunk urine. Had his words the night before been that insulting? She'd enjoyed herself thoroughly, as much as he had. So why look as sour as she did now?

"Speaking of debauchery," Temari's voice was strident within the silence of the hall, "brother, can you tell me the penalty for adultery?"

Gaara replied in a voice as soft as his sister's was loud. "It's the death penalty, of course."

Genma's eyes widened in panic as he clutched the chair in front of him. "None of them were married! I made sure of it!"

"I wasn't talking about _him_." Temari narrowed her eyes as she focused on Kakashi.

"Do you have evidence of such an act?" Kakashi chilled as the Kazekage pierced him with an unforgiving gaze.

"I do," Temari replied evenly. "He shared my bed."

"What!?" Gaara launched out of his chair. Thankfully, the quick-acting Naruto intervened, throwing himself between Kakashi and a livid younger brother.

"Kakashi, is this true?" the Hokage asked in a voice far more quiet than usual.

"I…"

"It's true. I set it all up." Genma chuckled in relief. Kakashi's predicament eclipsed his own minor brush with the law. He'd likely get off without a punishment.

"There is a crime called pandering, you know," Temari reminded him acidly.

Genma's smile disappeared.

"This means he should be made my husband, doesn't it? To avoid disgrace, I mean."

"Temari, this is completely inappropriate! Kakashi's just been widowed. And the Tsuchikage—"

Kakashi breathed more easily as Gaara's ire turned to his sister. For the moment, at least, the spotlight had moved. The copy ninja absent mindedly reached for his book—it always calmed him in moments of social crisis.

"What? _Widowed_? _When?_ And when were you going to tell me about my marriage plans? The Tsuchikage is a nasty old coot! He probably can't even get it up!"

Another chuckle issued from the corner Genma claimed as his own.

Gaara's face went white, in the manner of a child who's just walked in on his parent's bedroom activities. But unlike a son in search of the brain bleach, the Kazekage couldn't leave the room: his rank would not allow this.

"I can't marry him! Why don't _you_ marry his sister? That would accomplish the same end."

There was a visceral shudder from Temari's brother as he contemplated the thought of a union with the Tsuchikage's liver-spotted twin. She was so saggy. So bulbous.

"Put the book away, Kakashi," Izumo strode toward the copy ninja and grabbed the volume that man held.

The copy ninja frowned. He hadn't even opened it yet.

"Give it to me," Naruto said, and the book was immediately delivered. "I've never understood what you see in these books, Kakashi. Pervy sage was a great mentor and all, but his books are a little much. I don't think real-life people are capable of the things he describes."

The sadly misinformed Hokage flipped open the solid orange book and frowned. "Hey! This isn't your book. Where did you get it?"

"I've had that book for years. I don't know what you're talking about."

"No, this is _my_ book! _The_ _Tale of the Gutsy Ninja_! I gave it to Sakura only days ago!" Naruto gaped at Kakashi in horror. "I can't believe you would do something like this. You not only slept with Temari, but you—you—"

"Hokage-sama," Temari interrupted. "I can explain."

Naruto's eyes widened as the kunoichi approached, and his incredulity quickly turned to rage.

"What is that necklace you're wearing? Where did you get it?"

"From a friend."

"No, not from a friend. You don't _murder_ your friends. How cold blooded are the two of you? I know you didn't love her, Kakashi, but to stoop this low…" Naruto's eyes threatened tears. "I don't believe it."

"What are you talking about?" Gaara asked, an expression of confusion on his normally stolid face.

"I had that pendant custom made for Sakura. It's one of a kind. How could Temari have gotten it?"

"Think carefully before you accuse my sister of murder." A glower reminiscent of those from Gaara's early days darkened his face.

"Stop it!" Temari yelled. "Stop jumping to conclusions! Sakura gave it to me, okay? And she's not dead. Come with me."

A small cortege followed her to the residential wing of the palace. Temari opened the door to a room at one end of a wide hall, and distributed the items left on the bedside table.

"She asked me to give this to, you, Naruto," Temari explained as he handed him another orange volume. "And this is for you, Kakashi the Pervert Adulterer."

"This is _Icha, Icha Paradise_. It has your name on it, Kakashi."

"How is that possible?" asked Kakashi before realization dawned like a ball of fire in the morning sky. He opened the letter, scanned it briefly, and then threw it on the bed.

"I need to retrieve my wife," he said curtly. Then he bolted.

Naruto picked up the creased note and read it aloud.

"'Kakashi—for all I have done to you, I am truly sorry. I would end this if I could. But given that marriage is a lifelong contract, the only way out of this is for one of us to die. It can't be you— I won't allow this. And as I am too cowardly to allow the latter, I choose a third way. A village's betrayers are also dead: they are stricken from the rolls of the living. Live on in the life you want for yourself. I hope it is everything you wish for.'"

"She's gone missing," Gaara summarized, his face returned to its usual stoic affect. "Not good when war's approaching."

* * *

Kakashi raced over barren, windy plains, incognizant of the grit that lodged in his sandals, in his waistband and under the edges of his mask. He was fairly certain of the path Sakura had taken. The copy ninja had tracked missing nin on multiple occasions and knew that they tended to think alike when planning their escape. The first goal always was to get as far from the home village and country as possible. To the east of Suna lay water, with no port or harbor. To the south was more desert. To the west lay country unfriendly to ninja, where soldiers were known to attack on sight. And northeast lay River Country and then Konoha. So Sakura would travel north, Kakashi concluded, to Ame or Bird. He'd visit Ame first, he decided as it was the more dangerous of the two destinations. It was unlikely that Sakura had heard of the outbreak of hostilities before leaving.

He didn't bother to track her. The wind swept away such clues like a miller blowing chaff from the threshing room floor. Beside that, Kakashi doubted she'd stay in Suna. She had too many memories of the place.

After twelve hours of running he found her. Kakashi stopped close to the border with Ame, at the edge of lush fields made possible by irrigation pipes shared with that country of constant rain. It was a serendipitous that he did so: if Kakashi hadn't been in dire need of water, he would have pushed on, into the war zone. Sakura was kind hearted enough that she'd stop to render first aid to the first soldier she came across, regardless of his chosen side. Kakashi hoped she'd not yet encountered any.

But regardless of his need to find her, it was foolish to travel tired and thirsty. Little would be accomplished by a body overcome by basic needs. A water pump called to the wind-parched copy ninja, as did the promise of shade and a quick nap in a decrepit barn nearby. His four-hour rest the night before was not enough to fuel a day of searching.

When Kakashi entered the space he immediately knew he wasn't alone. At the far end of the half-standing barn a group of kittens sat mewling, hungry for a breakfast that was still being hunted.

And then he smelled _her_, moments before he sighted her. He'd inhaled her scent so deeply the night before that it was indelibly marked in his consciousness. He breathed deeply now, and the passion of the night before overwhelmed him.

A ray of light penetrated a gap in the boards that loosely covered the rundown barn's roof, illuminating the hair spread around the kunoichi like a pink aurora. Although asleep she'd thrown one arm over her eyes to block the intense rays, and her lips were parted and moist, as though she had just blown him a kiss.

Kakashi knelt by his sleeping wife and observed the woman who'd managed to seduce him in true kunoichi style. Her skirt was hiked around her waist, and the tight black shorts she usually wore beneath were missing, revealing a silken undergarment he remembered vividly. Her perfect tits spilled from her half-zipped shirt, and Kakashi felt a sudden urge to knead them, as the kittens in the corner were now assaulting their mother's breasts.

But he held back. Instead, he crept to her side and slowly, gently moved her arm from her face, shielding her from the light with his own torso. He slid down the hitae-ate she wore as headband until it covered her eyes, fastening it tight with an impromptu jutsu approximating the one she'd used on him the night before.

Then Kakashi kissed her, ready to grab her arms should she revolt.

She did, and he held her as she struggled against him, heart racing in panic.

"Get off me!" she hissed, and the copy ninja chuckled.

Slowly he unzipped her shirt to free her breasts, then lavished each with long, slow strokes of his tongue. Sakura wriggled under him in a vain effort at freeing herself.

"How does it feel," Kakashi asked quietly, "to not know who your lover is?"

"Kakashi?" The kunoichi's voice was a tremor, filled with relief and a new anxiety.

The copy ninja didn't respond. Instead he kissed Sakura savagely, clamping both wrists with one calloused hand as he tore at her shirt with the other. He grazed her breasts with a stubbled cheek, then tugged and bit at nipples already turgid. She lifted up slightly, offering her flesh to him. Kakashi let go, loosing her hands as he freed Sakura from her remaining clothes. He didn't bother to remove his own. He felt her grab his cock, releasing it from the fabric that constrained it. And then, without preliminary, he was inside her.

"Why did you leave?" he uttered with ragged breaths.

"Because that was what you wanted. To be free of me." He felt her clench around him, an inner embrace so tight and hot that he thought he might not survive it.

"So you died. And now I'm dying."

"Are you reborn?"

"Yes." Kakashi suckled her as intently as a hungry infant, and with the same focused selfishness. Then he thrust more deeply into her heat, his motions measuring his next words.

"A wife shouldn't leave her husband."

Sakura moaned as he hit the sweet spot deep inside her.

"You said you weren't my husband. That you never would be."

"But that was before you _won_."

"I won?"

"You met the challenge, didn't you? We shared a bed, and I did find my copy of _Icha, Icha_ on your nightstand."

"But—" the kunoichi cried anxiously, "that wasn't my intent. And besides…"

"Besides?"

Her lip trembled. "It's obvious that you're in love with someone else."

Kakashi pulled off Sakura's hitae-ate and gazed into her wide, green eyes. "Temari's not the one I'm in love with."

She was taken aback by his words. "Not the one…?" Sakura couldn't have wished for more.

But then common sense prevailed. Such a dramatic change in feelings could only be due to one thing.

"It's okay to admit it. This is about the sex, isn't it?"

Kakashi grinned lopsidedly, flashing dimples Sakura had thought she'd never see again.

"I'd be a liar if I said it wasn't. You _understand_ me."

"And your..._needs_." The glimmer in Sakura's celadon eyes was wicked.

_How had he possibly dismissed her?_ Kakashi wondered.

"But there's something else. I was wrong. About you. You're more than my equal. You're strong—stronger than me, and that's not the only way you've surpassed me. I really do want to give this a shot. Be my wife, Sakura."

The kunoichi gasped as her husband moved inside of her again, eager to please. "I already am."

His lips met hers as though to seal their new commitment to each other. The barn was quiet for a while, apart from the sounds of their fervid joining. Talking was pointless when he had so much to show her.

But Kakashi did break the silence after a while, if only to tease his new wife. "There will be punishment, of course."

"Of course?"

"Mmm hmm. Naughty girls need discipline. Over." The copy ninja ground against her, eliciting a moan so enchanting that it brought him to the brink. "Over, and over and over."

"That sounds fair," Sakura answered agreeably, eager to begin her penance if it was what she thought it might be.

Kakashi grinned. He couldn't wait to take her to the restricted section of Pink. So many toys, so little time.

"But no more deception," he clarified, as he brought her to the first of several peaks of bliss. "Leave that at work, please."

"I promise," the copy ninja's wife replied with passion-challenged breaths. "The end doesn't justify the means. It can't. Not when it comes to love."

"I agree," Kakashi murmured. "_Never,_ when it comes to love. But I will say this: Despite everything, it's turned out well. _Us_, I mean."

"The great Jiraiya was right, then."

"Wait a minute." Kakashi raised himself off his lover and peered deeply into her jadeite eyes. It was hard to figure out if she was joking, given her earnest expression. "You really think Jiraiya is great?"

"Well, he brought us together, didn't he? His book, that is. And to tell the truth, I _did_ enjoy it."

"My sweet Sakura enjoys hentai literature!" Kakashi crowed to no one in particular, with a voice that suggested he was the beneficiary of yet another unexpected miracle. "Could I ask for more?" He tickled his wife's flank before asking a final question. "But what was it that he said?"

"Silly. Last page of _Icha, Icha Paradise._ The very last line."

"Ah. I agree. 'All's well that ends well.'"

.

_Author's note: I hope you enjoyed the story. The original Shakespeare play, "All's Well that Ends Well" can be found at http:// shakespeare . mit . edu / allswell / full . html It was definitely a challenge to fit the two main characters to Sakura and Kakashi-- Helena and Bertram are far too unlikeable, the least likeable Shakespearean characters I've read. Accordingly, I've drawn Sakura and Kakashi a bit differently than I have in my other stories, where I have control over the plot and characters. I hope you like the story anyway! Regardless, please consider voting for your favorite at community . livejournal . com / kakasaku /__remove spaces to make this a working link!) Voting ends March 10, and you will need a live journal account to vote, but registering is easy.  
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